A Cave Bear, a Wooly Mammoth and a Musician...
Don’t miss the turn! That is the most important tip I can impart here. There is a sign and then…THERE’S THE TURN!!!! RIGHT THERE! ON YOUR LEFT!!!!!! The Celtic and Prehistoric Museum is not far from Dingle as you head around the peninsula. And yes…it’s worth the stop.
What you’re looking for as soon as you see the sign!
The Cave Bear
You are greeted by the skeleton of a cave bear in the foyer. There is an entire room for the wooly mammoth. You’ll see Viking art and tools that date back a million years.
Yep, it get’s its own room.
You can touch some of this stuff!
And your guide is a man committed to both music and history. That means he can both educate you and entertain you. After college Harris Moore put his love of history on a back burner to nurture his passion for music. After a decade of playing the hammer dulcimer all across Europe he brought history to the fore. And that is how the Celtic Prehistoric Museum came to be on the Dingle Peninsula.
Harris Moore playing the hammer dulcimer.
“A friend of mine settled in Dingle and had a recording studio and I fell in love with the area and it seemed logical to settle here, be near music and sessions in the pubs and build on my background in history,” Moore says.
He had come across a few historic collections when he was traveling through Scandinavia and had been able to invest in them. That included a full skeleton of a wooly mammoth, and a fossilized nest of dinosaur eggs. And so be began the journey of changing careers and building a museum.
It is a beautifully crafted home on the Dingle Peninsula and for 21 years Harris has lived there, filling it with fossils, tools, jewelry, artwork and skeletons. And…he lets you touch stuff.
“Most museums tell you not to touch things. I like to take out the tools and let people hold them and feel what the Neanderthals felt. I life to see the kids’ face when they see the dinosaur eggs or the cave bear or the wooly mammoth,” he says.
(Did I mention that the wooly mammoth gets its own room?)
So he’s lived on music, and now he lives with history. He’s lived in the U.S., traveled Europe and spent two decades in Dingle. He’s followed two passions in life, where most of us find it hard to commit to one. I’d say that is a life well-lived.
it looks like a caveman alien to me.
So don’t miss the turn to the Celtic & Prehistoric Museum on the Dingle Peninsula. It’s IMMEDIATELY after the sign.
You can find info on the Celtic prehistoric museum here: https://www.facebook.com/The-Celtic-Prehistoric-Museum-271708022869479/
You can hear him talk about his journey and his music in episode 29 of Erin’s Isle.
