Ballyrashane, Baile Ráth Singean, Co. Derry

Baile Ráth Singean · Co. Derry

A creamery, a church, and a parish that can't decide which county it's in.

Ballyrashane isn't really a village. It's a parish, a creamery, a couple of churches and a scatter of farms between Coleraine and the coast. The name on the postmark is the name of the dairy co-op, and the dairy co-op is the reason anyone outside the parish has heard of the place.

The co-op was set up in 1896 - one of the first creameries in Ulster - and stayed independent through the 20th century while the rest of the dairy industry consolidated around it. The Ballyrashane brand survived two mergers (LacPatrick in 2015, Lakeland Dairies in 2018) and still sits on the butter in every shop from Derry to Belfast. The creamery itself is on Creamery Road, Cloyfin, just outside Coleraine. There's not much to see from the road. The point is that it's still there.

Beyond the creamery: St John's Church of Ireland from 1826, a Presbyterian meeting house, a graveyard that genealogists from North America turn up at with notebooks, and farmland. That's the parish. If you're passing through to Portstewart or the Causeway, you've already passed through.

Coords

55.1500° N, 6.6500° W

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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 creamery

Milk into butter since 1896.

Ballyrashane Co-op was founded in 1896 and ran independently for over a century. It's now part of Lakeland Dairies - the butter on the supermarket shelf still carries the name.

Stories & lore → 02 The border parish

Half in Derry, half in Antrim.

The civil parish of Ballyrashane straddles the old county line - barony of North East Liberties of Coleraine on one side, barony of Dunluce Lower on the other. Nobody local thinks about it much.

Stories & lore → 03 St John's

A small church, 1826.

St John the Baptist, Church of Ireland, sits in the parish. Built in 1826 with a grant from the Board of First Fruits. Plain late-English style. Diocese of Connor.

Stories & lore →

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Stories & lore.

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

1896 and counting

The co-op

Ballyrashane Co-operative Agricultural & Dairy Society was founded in 1896, riding the late-Victorian wave of co-operative creameries that transformed Irish dairying. It stayed independent through the 1920s, the war years, the EEC, and the long consolidation of the 1990s - outlasting most of its peers. The merger with Monaghan's co-op formed LacPatrick in 2015. LacPatrick was absorbed into Lakeland Dairies in 2018. The Ballyrashane brand kept its name because the name was worth more than the structure underneath it. 130 years of butter in 2026.

Two counties, one church

The border parish

The civil parish of Ballyrashane straddles the Derry-Antrim line - the larger share in Derry's North East Liberties of Coleraine barony, a slice in Antrim's Dunluce Lower. Old parish boundaries predate the modern counties and ignored them. The church served both sides. The creamery took milk from both sides. Locals who farm in Antrim still say they're going up to Ballyrashane and nobody asks for clarification.

Why creameries mattered

The co-operative century

Before the co-ops, an Ulster farmer with twelve cows sold his butter at a country market and took whatever the dealer offered. After the co-ops - Ballyrashane was an early one - he supplied milk daily to a shared facility, got a fair price set by the books, and shared in the profits at year-end. The model came out of Denmark via Horace Plunkett's IAOS. Ballyrashane was one of the first northern parishes to take it on. The creamery on Creamery Road is what came of it.

Getting there.

By car

Coleraine is five minutes. Portstewart ten. The A2 and the A29 both run through the parish. You will not find a Ballyrashane signpost from a distance - look for Cloyfin or Creamery Road instead.

By bus

No direct service. Translink buses run Coleraine-Portstewart along the A2; get off at the nearest stop and walk in.

By train

Nearest station is Coleraine (3 km) on the Belfast-Derry line. Then taxi or bus.

By air

City of Derry Airport is 30 minutes. Belfast International is 75.