POSTED FROM

BALLINABRANNAGH

CO. CARLOW · IE

Ballinabrannagh
Baile na mBreatnach, Co. Carlow

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Baile na mBreatnach · Co. Carlow

A school, a church and a graveyard that holds the first civilian killed in 1916 - the village the motorway built and then bypassed.

Ballinabrannagh - Baile na mBreatnach, the town of the Walshes - is not a village in the picture-postcard sense. It is a townland eight kilometres south of Carlow town that turned into a village because the M9 motorway opened five kilometres east in 2010 and the commuters into Carlow needed somewhere to live. Two estates went up, Milford Park and then Gort na Gréine, and the 2011 census decided there were enough houses to call it a place. It counted 389 people then; the 2022 count put it at 557.

What was here before the houses is what makes it worth a paragraph. St Fintan's church, a plain barn-style chapel finished in 1830, sits in the middle of it. In the graveyard beside it lies Margaret Kehoe, a Carlow nurse shot in her uniform at the South Dublin Union on Easter Monday 1916 and now reckoned the first civilian to die in the Rising. A few graves over is John Conwill, the schoolmaster who taught the boy John Tyndall before Tyndall went on to explain why the sky is blue.

The other story is down the hill at Milford, a five-minute walk south, where the River Barrow turned the most extensive flour mills in Ireland. In 1891 the Alexander family ran a generator off the same water and put Carlow town on electric light - the first inland town in either Ireland or Britain to manage it. The Milford station still feeds the national grid.

Day to day, though, this is a commuter village with a school, a creche, a GAA pitch and that church, and nothing in the way of a pub, a cafe or a shop. Carlow town is eight kilometres north; Leighlinbridge, with the Black Castle and the Barrow bridge, is a few kilometres south. Ballinabrannagh is the address of the people who work in one of those and didn't want to live in either. Come for the graveyard and the mills; don't come for a day out.

Population

557 (2022)

Walk score

Five minutes end to end

Founded

St Fintan's church 1830; census town since 2011

Coords

52.7856° N, 6.9850° W

01 / 06

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 grave

Nurse Margaret Kehoe lies in St Fintan's graveyard.

Shot in her uniform at the South Dublin Union on Easter Monday 1916, she was the first of more than 260 civilians to die in the Rising. Her remains were brought home to the church in the middle of this small Carlow village.

Stories & lore → 02 The mills

Milford lit the first inland town in these islands.

Five minutes south, the Alexander family's flour mills on the Barrow generated hydro-electricity in 1891 - making Carlow the first inland town in Ireland or Britain on the grid. The Milford station still feeds it today.

Stories & lore → 03 The road

Eight kilometres south of Carlow on the old N9.

The R448 was the main Carlow to Waterford road until the M9 opened five kilometres east in 2010. The motorway took the lorries; the commuters stayed and built two estates. The 2011 census called it a village.

Getting there →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

Easter Monday, the South Dublin Union

Nurse Margaret Kehoe, the first civilian of 1916

Margaret Kehoe was born in County Carlow on St Patrick's Day 1867 and trained as a nurse. By Easter 1916 she was working at the South Dublin Union, the vast workhouse and hospital on the western edge of Dublin that Eamonn Ceannt's 4th Battalion seized on Easter Monday, 24 April. In the fighting she went down a staircase to check on patients on a lower floor, stepped into a corridor where two British soldiers stood, and was shot dead in her nurse's uniform. She was forty-eight. She is now generally reckoned the first of the more than 260 civilians killed in the Rising. First buried in the workhouse grounds, her remains were later brought home and reinterred in the graveyard beside St Fintan's church here. The headstone is the reason a quiet commuter village turns up in the history books.

The Alexander mills on the Barrow, 1891

Milford and the first inland electric light

A five-minute walk south at Milford, the River Barrow drove what became the most extensive flour mills in Ireland, established by the Alexander family from 1790. In 1891 they installed a hydro-electric generator and ran a line up to Carlow town - making Carlow the first inland town in either Ireland or Britain to get electric public lighting. The river that turned the mill wheels still turns turbines: the Milford generating station feeds the national grid to this day. The weir, the mill buildings and the stretch of the Barrow below them are an easy detour from the village, and the river here keeps otters, herons and kingfishers.

John Conwill, who taught the boy who explained the blue sky

Tyndall's schoolmaster

Also in St Fintan's graveyard lies John Conwill, the schoolmaster who in the 1830s taught the young John Tyndall - the Leighlinbridge-born physicist who went on to explain why the sky is blue (the Tyndall effect), pioneered work on what we now call the greenhouse effect, and gave his name to Tyndallisation. The great man came from the next village down the road; the man who first put a book in front of him is buried in this one. It is a small parish with an outsized footnote in the history of science.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

Clogrennane Wood Loop The walk to do from here. A Coillte forest loop a short drive north of the village on the road into Carlow, gentle forest roads zig-zagging uphill to open views over Carlow town and the River Barrow. Old woodland - beech, oak, larch, with bluebells and wild garlic in spring. Dedicated car park and picnic spot. Easy underfoot.

3.5 km loopdistance

1 to 1.5 hourstime

Milford and the Barrow South of the village to Milford, where the mills and the weir sit on the river. Not a waymarked trail so much as a stroll down to the water and the old industrial buildings. The hydro story is under your feet. Watch the river for herons and, if you are lucky and quiet, a kingfisher.

2 km returndistance

40 minutestime

St Fintan's graveyard Not a walk so much as the reason to stop. The 1830 barn-style church and the graveyard beside it, with Margaret Kehoe's headstone and John Conwill's. Quiet, unfenced, the kind of place a passing visitor can stand for ten minutes and leave knowing something they didn't.

In the villagedistance

20 minutestime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Clogrennane Wood is at its best - bluebells and wild garlic under the old beech. The hedgerows on the R448 green up fast and the Barrow at Milford runs full.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and nothing happening in the village itself. Use it as a base for the Clogrennane loop, Carlow town and Leighlinbridge a few minutes south.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The wood turns and the river is good, but the village has no visitor infrastructure at any time of year. Carlow and Leighlinbridge are the places to eat and drink.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov-Feb

A commuter village in its quietest mode. The church and graveyard are always there; everything else is closed or elsewhere. Drive through to Leighlinbridge; do not come specifically.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Coming for a pub or a meal

There is no pub, no cafe and no shop in the village. The GAA grounds have a gym; the church has a graveyard. Leighlinbridge and Carlow town have everything else and are both close.

Expecting a heritage centre

Margaret Kehoe's grave, the church and the Milford mills are real and worth the stop, but they are a headstone, a chapel and a working power station - not a visitor attraction with a car park and a cafe. Come knowing that.

The R448 as a scenic route

It is the useful old N9, not a scenic drive. The Clogrennane Wood loop is the walk and the Barrow at Milford is the river. The road is just how you get between them.

Getting there.

By car

Carlow town to Ballinabrannagh is about ten minutes south on the R448, the old N9. From Dublin, take the M9 to Junction 6 (Carlow South) and double back roughly five kilometres on the R448. Leighlinbridge is a few kilometres further on.

By bus

There is no scheduled bus stop in Ballinabrannagh itself. Bus Éireann services on the Dublin to Waterford corridor stop in Carlow town and Leighlinbridge; Local Link covers the rural roads around the village. The primary school is the practical landmark for anyone being collected.

By train

Carlow station is on the Dublin to Waterford line, eight kilometres north. Trains run to Dublin Heuston in around an hour.