This Free Kerry Festival This Weekend Is Perfect For Families
If you’ve been quietly scrolling through your phone trying to figure out how to fill the weekend without spending a fortune, we may have just found your answer. The Discover Derrynane Family Festival returns this weekend, running from Friday 5 June to Sunday 7 June, and every single event is free.
Produced by the Office of Public Works, the festival takes place across the stunning grounds of Derrynane National Historic Park in County Kerry, and the programme is genuinely packed. Walks, talks, wildlife experiences, workshops, music, storytelling, face painting, beach yoga — it’s one of those rare weekends where the kids are kept busy and you might actually enjoy yourself too.
What’s on across the weekend
Things get going on Friday afternoon with marine creature workshops and musical guided tours with Peter Mullarkey. There’s a photography workshop with Patrick Kavanagh, and the evening closes with something rather lovely — a themed storytelling and astronomy tour called ‘Dusk’, which celebrates stillness. If you’ve spent the past six months dreaming of a quiet moment, that one might be for you.
Saturday and Sunday are where the family programme really opens up. Seashore safaris, wild plant medicine walks, bee observation, face painting, beach yoga, and heritage walks out to Abbey Island with poet Paddy Bushe. There are guided tours of Derrynane House itself, film screenings, and music and storytelling connected to the extraordinary life of Daniel O’Connell, whose family home Derrynane House was for generations.
Minister of State Kevin “Boxer” Moran TD will officially launch the festival, and he summed it up well: “The full programme has something for everyone to enjoy, from workshops and outdoor activities to storytelling and music. There are ample opportunities to explore the marine life and immerse yourself in nature.”
A peaceful stretch of shoreline at Derrynane on the Wild Atlantic Way.
About Derrynane itself
If you haven’t been to Derrynane before, it’s one of those places that genuinely stops you in your tracks. Sitting about 3.5km from Caherdaniel in south Kerry, the National Historic Park covers 300 acres and takes in beautiful gardens, natural oak woodland, archaeological sites and 1.5km of coastline including a Blue Flag beach. It’s on the Wild Atlantic Way route, and trails through the grounds include a section of the Kerry Way and a seashore nature trail.
The house itself is a museum dedicated to Daniel O’Connell — The Liberator — and his legacy. It was transferred to the State in 1964 and is now under the care of the OPW. It’s the kind of place that manages to be genuinely interesting for adults while still giving kids plenty of space to run around outside, which is not always an easy combination to find.
Practical bits before you go
All events are free, though some require advance booking, so it’s worth checking the full schedule before you head off. For the complete programme and to book your spot where needed, visit the Heritage Ireland website for further information and opening times.
Kerry in June, a Blue Flag beach, free events and the kids genuinely entertained. It’s not often everything lines up quite like that.