Ballyclare, Bealach Cláir, Co. Antrim

Bealach Cláir · Co. Antrim

Market town in the Sixmilewater valley. Famous for one Tuesday in May.

Ballyclare is a mid-Antrim market town in the Sixmilewater valley, twelve miles north of Belfast and another twelve south of the Antrim hills. It is not a heritage village and does not pretend to be one. The population is over ten thousand and rising - a working town with a commuter overlay, a bypass that fills twice a day, and a high street that still does the basic work a high street is meant to do.

The thing it has that no neighbour can claim is the May Fair. A grant from George II in 1756 set up two yearly fairs in the town, and one of them - the horse fair on a Tuesday in mid-May - survived everything the next two hundred and seventy years could throw at it. By the nineteenth century cavalry agents were arriving from continental Europe to buy here. Today it's a seven-day town fair with rides and stalls and a crowd in the tens of thousands, with the horse trading still at its heart on the Tuesday and the Monday.

The rest of the year, the angle is the river and the hills behind it. The Sixmilewater runs through the town park and gives the place its best walk; Ballyboley Forest, fifteen minutes' drive north-east, gives the place its best half-day. Beyond that it's a town to live in, not a town to visit - and that is a fair and honest way to put it.

Population

~10,850

Coords

54.7517° N, 6.0017° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The May Fair

A horse fair since the 1750s, a town fair since forever.

On 16 December 1756 King George II granted the Earl of Donegall the right to hold two yearly fairs at Ballyclare. The horse fair survived; the cattle fair didn't. Cavalry buyers came from across Europe for the horses. The fair still runs on a Tuesday in mid-May.

Stories & lore → 02 The river

The Sixmilewater rises above the town and runs to Lough Neagh.

Thirty kilometres of river that gives the town its valley, its park, and its riverside walk. Rises near Ballyboley Forest in the hills north-east of town and finishes at Antrim, where it empties into Lough Neagh.

Walks & outings → 03 The commute

Twelve miles north of Belfast and most of the town drives there.

Ballyclare is a working town with a commuter overlay. The bypass is busy at 8am and at 6pm. The high street still has the shops a working town needs, plus a few it doesn't.

The letter →

02 / 09

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Five Corners

Coal fire, Saturday-night entertainment

Country pub & guest inn

Out at 249 Rashee Road on the way to Doagh. A country pub with a coal fire in the bar and live music on Saturday nights. Doubles as a guesthouse and the dining room next door is Brothers Restaurant.

Brothers Restaurant

Back-to-back Gastro Pub of the Year

Gastro pub

The restaurant arm of the Five Corners Guest Inn. Evenings Mon-Fri, lunches at the weekend - check the hours before you set off. Comfortable rather than ambitious; the steaks and the carvery are what people come back for.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Brothers Restaurant	Gastro pub	££	Out at the Five Corners on Rashee Road. The best sit-down dinner in or around Ballyclare, by most local accounts. Evenings during the week, lunches at the weekend - check the website before you set off.
Abode Café	Café	£	Opened on Main Street in 2023. Coffee, lunch, daytime hours. The kind of room that's filled the gap a town this size always has on its main street.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Five Corners Guest Inn	Guesthouse	Twelve guest rooms above the bar and restaurant at 249 Rashee Road. The only proper bed-and-board operation in the town itself; otherwise people stay in Belfast or out at Templepatrick and drive in.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

A royal charter, a horse fair, and a town that kept it going

The May Fair

On 16 December 1756 King George II granted the Earl of Donegall the right to hold two yearly fairs on the town and lands of Ballyclare, at a rent of thirteen shillings and fourpence a year. The May fair began as a local horse fair and grew until cavalry buyers were travelling here from across Europe to bid on the stock. In the nineteenth century the demand for horses was such that the Monday was given over to the trade and the Tuesday remained the fair proper. The cattle fair faded out long ago; the May Fair still runs every May, a seven-day event beginning on a Tuesday in the middle of the month, with rides, stalls, and a crowd of around twenty thousand. The horses are still there on the Tuesday morning if you know where to look.

The river that built the valley

The Sixmilewater

The Sixmilewater rises in the moorland around Ballyboley Forest and runs west for thirty kilometres through Ballyclare, Doagh, Templepatrick and Antrim, where it empties into Lough Neagh. The valley around the river was settled hard in the seventeenth-century Plantation - the Adair family at Ballymena, the Donegalls at the lough, the Presbyterian planters at every crossroads - and the religious revival known as the Six Mile Water Revival broke out in this valley in 1625, beginning at Oldstone Church near Antrim. It is the closest thing the river has to a famous moment.

A private academy in Doagh, a grammar school in Ballyclare

Ballyclare High School

The school started in the 1890s as a private fee-paying academy in Doagh and was taken over in 1902 by Miss Catherine Aiken, who moved it to Ballyclare two years later. A new building went up on the Rashee Road in 1930 and the name was changed to Ballyclare High School in 1935. When Mr Russell became the school's third headmaster in 1939 his priority was establishing rugby, which he did in the early 1940s. Ten years later, on 20 May 1949, a meeting at the school chaired by Mr Russell - with some of his teaching staff and a number of past pupils - founded Ballyclare Rugby Football Club. The school and the club have run side by side ever since.

From Russell Park to Cloughan Lane

Ballyclare Rugby Club

Founded out of the High School in 1949, Ballyclare RFC played at Russell Park on the Doagh Road for the first four decades of its life. When that land was sold the club moved up Cloughan Lane, where the Old Ballyclarians built and paid for a new clubhouse, opened in 1992. It is one of the senior clubs in the Ulster Branch and the social heart of half the town on a Saturday afternoon between September and April.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Sixmilewater Park A flat riverside loop on tree-lined paths through the park in the town. Managed grassland on one bank, natural woodland on the other. The town walk; do it on a lunch break or after work.

2.3 km loopdistance

40 mintime

Ballyboley Forest & Kilylane Reservoir Ten miles north-east of the town, off the Upper Ballyboley Road. A waymarked loop through conifer plantation and meadow to a small upland reservoir, inside the Antrim Coast and Glens AONB. The best half-day walk within reach of Ballyclare.

7 km loopdistance

2 hourstime

Ballyboley to Knockagh From the forest car park, longer routes head south-east along the Antrim Plateau toward the Knockagh Monument above Carrickfergus, with the view opening out over Belfast Lough. For the day-walker with a map and a second car at the end.

12 kmdistance

3-4 hourstime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The May Fair anchors the middle of May - seven days, biggest week of the year, the only week Ballyclare draws a crowd from outside its parish. Book a bed in Belfast or Templepatrick if you want to be near it.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Quiet after the fair. The riverside park and Ballyboley walk are at their best. The town gets on with itself.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Conifer-and-bracken weather around Ballyboley. The rugby season starts at Cloughan Lane on Saturdays.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Working town in winter mode. Nothing to see that you couldn't see better on a clearer day.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Coming to Ballyclare for a holiday

It's a market and commuter town, not a destination. Use it as a base for the Antrim Plateau and the Six Mile Water walks, or stay in Belfast and drive out for the fair.

Looking for nightlife in the town centre

The Five Corners on Rashee Road runs a Saturday-night session, and that's about as live as the local scene gets. For a night out, the Cathedral Quarter is twenty-five minutes south.

Arriving on May Fair Tuesday without a plan

The town goes from ten thousand to thirty thousand for the day and the streets close. If you want the fair, come early and park out. If you don't want it, come a different week.

Confusing Ballyclare with Ballymena

Different towns, twenty miles apart. Ballymena is north on the M2; Ballyclare is east of it in the Sixmilewater valley. People do mix them up.

Getting there.

By car

Twelve miles north of Belfast on the A57 / Ballyclare Road via Mallusk. About 25 minutes off-peak; longer on the commute. From the M2, exit at Templepatrick (junction 5) and follow signs east.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus 109 runs from Belfast Grand Central to Ballyclare via Mallusk and Doagh, frequent through the day. Around 45 minutes.

By train

No station. The nearest is Mossley West on the Belfast-Antrim line, about ten minutes south by car. Belfast Lanyon Place is the main hub.

By air

Belfast International is the closest airport - fifteen minutes by car via the A57. Belfast City Airport is around thirty minutes via the M2.