The Shackleton Museum is Athy's strongest reason to stop. Ernest Shackleton was born at Kilkea, near Athy, in 1874, and the museum uses that local link to tell the wider story of his Antarctic expeditions.
It is a compact museum rather than a grand national collection, but the subject is strong enough to carry it. If you know only the outline of the Endurance story, this is the place in town that gives Athy a sharper identity.