Donegal Carpets
Killybegs is famous for its tapestries and carpets, some of which were produced on the biggest carpet loom in the world at the "Donegal Carpet Factory". The carpets, known as Donegals, are hand-knotted in the Turkish style. The carpets have adorned many important buildings in Ireland such as Dublin Castle, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Áras an Uachtaráin, Buckingham Palace and internationally the Vatican, The White House, 10 Downing Street and most state buildings around the world. The factory in Killybegs closed in 2003 and has been open since 2006 as the Maritime & Heritage Centre. The Centre provides information on the carpet making and the fishing industry. Tours are conducted daily and visitors can watch smaller carpets being made and try making a knot. There is also a ship simulator which is the most modern in Ireland. The simulator offers three levels of technique providing great fun for children and the not so young testing their navigation skills. The centre is open all year round.
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Famous quotes containing the word carpets:
“The heart of Paris is like nothing so much as the unending interior of a house. Buildings become furniture, courtyards become carpets and arrases, the streets are like galleries, the boulevards conservatories. It is a house, one or two centuries old, rich, bourgeois, distinguished. The only way of going out, or shutting the door behind you, is to leave the centre.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)