Suitable for all ages, Blennerville Windmill is the largest working windmill in Ireland and the only windmill along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. It was authentically restored to full working order in the 1980s. Visitors can get up close and appreciate the scale and complexity of the windmill machinery and climb to the top to see how flour is made. Blennerville was the main post of emigration from County Kerry during The Great Famine (1845 - 1848) and was, during those years, the home port of the famous emigrant barque “Jeanie Johnson”.
The visitor centre houses a fascinating display on the Jeanie Johnson and Irish emigration. A visit to this unique attraction will include:
• An audio-visual presentation
• An emigration exhibition
• A guided tour of the windmill, demonstrating how flour is made using the ancient quorn stones which is always a great hit with children
• Time in Kerry’s Model Railway, which is also of interest to the young and the young at heart
• Display of vintage and nostalgic artefacts
• Gift shop
From the visitor centre there are great views of Tralee Bay Nature Reserve. There is a telescope available for a close-up of the many varieties of resident and migratory bird species such as curlew, heron, turnstone, ringed plover, dunlin, redshank, bar-tailed godwit and golden plover pale-bellied brent geese. They feed on eelgrass and green seaweeds on the mudflats and graze in the nearby fields and saltmarshes when this food is scarce.