{"id":369186,"date":"2026-03-28T04:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/369186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:11:20","slug":"worlds-biggest-collection-of-cuckoo-clocks-opens-to-public-in-waterford-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/369186\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s biggest collection of cuckoo clocks opens to public in Waterford \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the long, cold months of a Black Forest winter, 18th century German<\/a> farmers yearned to hear the cuckoo\u2019s call to herald the return of spring. <\/p>\n

So they did the next best thing and created their own calling bird inside timepieces that would tick away the dark hours. <\/p>\n

Now 400 of the cuckoo clocks they made and inspired have arrived in Ireland, where they make up the largest public collection of their kind in the world. <\/p>\n

The clocks have joined the 600 other pieces on display at the Museum of Time<\/a> in Waterford city, where they were unveiled to the public for the first time on Friday. <\/p>\n

Museum benefactor David Boles bought the collection from two brothers in England who had built it up over 50 years, before taking the difficult decision to close in 2024. <\/p>\n

Since then, the clocks have been carefully cleaned, restored and relocated to a specially fitted out extension of the Museum of Time where the walls are now covered in pieces of all sizes and ages. <\/p>\n

Eamonn McEneaney<\/a>, who manages the project and designed the backdrop to resemble the German forest of the clocks\u2019 origins, described the extraordinary workmanship that went into them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re made of local timber, with the flora, fauna and fungi of the region carved into them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe sound of the cuckoo is made from a little bellows and tiny organ pipes. It\u2019s simple but also really clever. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cuckoo land: Alison Healy on a unique clock exhibition that\u2019s coming to WaterfordOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the technological genius of the clock mechanism, the decorative carvings and the sound of the Black Forest. They\u2019re quite exquisite.\u201d <\/p>\n

They come at one of the busiest times of the year for the museum as all the working clocks have to be put forward an hour when official summertime begins this Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have about 20 of the cuckoo clocks going, which is all you could have really because of the noise. If they were all going, the staff would literally go cuckoo,\u201d McEneaney said.<\/p>\n

Boles, who donated his own extensive collection of clocks to establish the Museum of Time in 2021, said he was delighted to bring this legacy of the Black Forest to Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis enchanting region gave rise to timepieces that are both mechanical marvels and timeless works of art,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Among the exhibition\u2019s highlights are oversized showpieces, delicate miniatures, table clocks, wall clocks, clocks that needed winding daily and others that required a visit from the local horologist for resetting only once every eight days. <\/p>\n

Minister of State for Heritage, John Cummins, who attended the opening of the collection, said it was a \u201cremarkable celebration of craftsmanship, heritage and imagination\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said it also \u201chighlights the power of cultural investment and philanthropy in bringing world-class collections to Irish audiences\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the long, cold months of a Black Forest winter, 18th century German farmers yearned to hear the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[292,42,43,40,38,41,39,6513],"class_list":["post-369186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-germany","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}