Ballyhalbert, Baile Thalbóid, Co. Down

Baile Thalbóid · Co. Down

Ireland's easternmost village. A small harbour, a big caravan park, a vanished airfield.

Ballyhalbert is a single street of houses, a tidal harbour, and the largest caravan park in the north sitting on the footprint of a wartime airfield. The village proper has a population of around 1,266. The caravan park, in season, has many times that. Most visitors don't notice the village at all - they come in off the A2, turn through the gates of Ballyhalbert Holiday Park, and don't come out again until they leave.

The reason to stop is south of all that. Burr Point is the most easterly point on the island of Ireland. The steel letter-E sculpture by Ned Jackson Smyth stands back in Ballyhalbert harbour, marking the easternmost direction. It is two kilometres of quiet coast walk from the harbour, with Burial Island - a tern colony with a Viking burial legend attached - sitting a stone's throw offshore. There is no car park at the point itself; the access road is residents-only. You walk in.

The other reason is the past. RAF Ballyhalbert opened on the 28th of June 1941 with the brief of defending Belfast from the east. By 1943 the Polish Air Force had moved in: 315 'City of Deblin' Squadron from July to November, then 303 'Kosciuszko' Squadron from November through to the following April. General Sosnkowski flew in on the 14th of August 1943 to pin Virtuti Militari crosses on four of the pilots. The Poles called it Belfast-the-quiet-posting. The airfield closed in 1945. The caravans arrived after.

There is no pub in the village. There is a chipper, a SPAR with a coffee bar, the holiday park's clubhouse, and ten minutes' drive in either direction to a proper bar. That is the deal. Come for Burr Point, the airfield ghost, and a long flat walk along the east coast. Leave when the tide does.

Population

1,266 (2021)

Walk score

Harbour to Burr Point in twenty minutes

Founded

Talbot family settled in the 12th century; Gaelicised to Ballitalbot by 1605

Coords

54.4950° N, 5.4603° W

01 / 08

At a glance.

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

01 Burr Point

The easternmost point on the island.

Two kilometres south of the harbour. No visitor centre, no turnstile, no fee - just a bench, a marker, and Burial Island a few hundred metres offshore. The Ned Jackson Smyth letter-E sculpture sits back at the harbour.

Walks & outings → 02 The airfield

RAF Ballyhalbert, 1941-45.

Three tarmac runways, two Bellman hangars, twelve Blister hangars. Polish squadrons 315 and 303 flew convoy patrols out of here between July 1943 and April 1944. The runways are gone; the caravan park sits on the footprint.

Stories & lore → 03 The harbour

Tidal, small, working when it can.

Drains at low water and fills again on the next tide. A handful of small boats, a slipway, a coastguard lookout on the hill above that has been disused since the station closed. In summer the kids jump off the wall.

The letter →

02 / 08

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Talbot's Catch	Chipper	€	The chipper at 18 High Street. Fresh fish suppers, Sunday lunch in season, a doner kebab on chips for the late crowd. Wednesday and Thursday from half four; Friday and Saturday from four. Nominated for Best Newcomer in the 2020 NI TakeAway Awards and never really slowed down.
SPAR Ballyhalbert	Shop & Barista Bar	€	24-28 High Street. The village shop, a Barista Bar coffee counter, and a deli that does the lunchtime sandwich and roll trade. If you're walking to Burr Point and need a flask filled, this is where you do it.
Ballyhalbert Holiday Park clubhouse	Bar food	€€	On-park food and drink for residents and visitors. Pub menu, families welcome, entertainment in the high season. Not the village pub - the holiday park's version of one.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Ballyhalbert Holiday Park	Static caravan park (owner-occupier)	The dominant accommodation in the village. A large gated park on the site of the former RAF airfield, with a clubhouse, ice cream parlour, mini-golf, gym, amusement arcade, launderette and on-site managers. Mostly owner-occupied static caravans rather than touring pitches - you buy in or you rent privately from an owner.
Sandycove Holiday Park (Ballywalter)	Holiday park, 6 min drive	The next caravan park up the coast in Ballywalter if Ballyhalbert is full. Same template, smaller scale.
A self-catering cottage on the peninsula	Self-catering	There are no hotels in the village. For a proper room with a key and a breakfast, look in Portaferry, Greyabbey, or Donaghadee, all within half an hour by road.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

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

The easternmost spot on the island

Burr Point

The most easterly point of Ireland sits two kilometres south of Ballyhalbert harbour at longitude 5.43° west. It is marked by a steel sculpture of the letter E by artist Ned Jackson Smyth - small, dark, set on the rocks at the tideline. There is no visitor centre and no fee. The access road is for residents only, so park at the harbour and walk down. The point itself is a bench, the sculpture, and the Irish Sea. Burial Island sits a few hundred metres offshore and gets thick with nesting terns from spring through summer. Local legend has it the island holds a Viking burial chamber full of gold. Archaeologists are not so sure.

The Polish squadrons

RAF Ballyhalbert

RAF Ballyhalbert opened on the 28th of June 1941 on flat farmland south of the village - three tarmac runways, two Bellman hangars, and twelve Blister hangars. Its job was to defend Belfast and the eastern half of Northern Ireland from the air. From July 1943 to April 1944, the station was home to two Polish fighter squadrons in succession: No. 315 'City of Deblin' from July to November 1943, then No. 303 'Kosciuszko-City of Warsaw' from November through to the following April. The work was largely convoy patrols and operational training; the Polish pilots called it a quiet posting. On the 14th of August 1943, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski - Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces - flew in to watch a flying display and pin Cross of Virtuti Militari medals on Squadron Leader Sawicz, Flying Officer Blok, Squadron Leader Popławski and Flying Officer Malczewski. The airfield closed at the end of the war. The caravan park took the site in the decades after.

How the village got its name

The Talbots

Ballyhalbert is Baile Thalbóid in Irish - Talbot's townland. The Talbot family came from Herefordshire and were granted land here during the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. The settlement was originally recorded as Talbotyston in 1333. By 1605 the name had been Gaelicised to Ballitalbot, and by 1617 it had taken its modern English form as Ballihalbert. The Normans threw up a motte nearby as a defensive earthwork - still visible in the landscape - to hold the bay against anyone coming in off the Irish Sea.

May 1917

UC65 in the bay

In May 1917, midway through the First World War, the German U-boat UC65 worked its way up the east coast of the Ards. In the space of a single sortie, the submarine captured four vessels in Ballyhalbert Bay and sank all four. The bay is shallow and exposed, and the Coastguard station on the hill - established in 1863 - had a clear line of sight to it. None of it was enough to stop the boat.

Mid-17th century to the harbour

The fishing village that was

Ballyhalbert was a fishing settlement by the mid-1600s. The 1836 Ordnance Survey memoir lists the inhabitants as mostly fishermen, with four spirit dealers, four grocers and a single smith making up the rest of the trades. The population was 322 in 1831. It is more than three times that now, but the fishing has largely gone - the working fleet is two villages south at Portavogie. The harbour at Ballyhalbert dries at low water and fills again on the next tide; in summer the kids jump off the wall.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

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

Harbour to Burr Point The walk. South from Ballyhalbert harbour along the shore path, across the fields, out to the marker at the easternmost tip of Ireland. Burial Island offshore. Bench at the point, public toilet at the harbour end. The road in is residents-only, so park and walk.

4 km returndistance

1 hourtime

Ballyhalbert to Portavogie coast walk South along the coast road and then down onto the shore past the former airfield perimeter. Brings you into Portavogie's working harbour - three fishing ports left in the north, and this is one of them. Time it for an evening when the trawlers are coming in.

6 km returndistance

2 hourstime

The old airfield perimeter The footprint of RAF Ballyhalbert is now caravan park and farmland, but the runway alignments are still readable from the satellite view, and the perimeter road traces most of the southern boundary. A bit of imagination required; a bit of history reward.

3 km loopdistance

45 mintime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, bright, the holiday park gearing up but not yet full. Burial Island starts filling with nesting terns in April. The east-coast light in clear weather is hard to beat.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The caravan park is at capacity and the High Street is busier than it looks. Burr Point itself stays uncrowded because the road in is residents-only and most visitors don't realise they can walk. Long evenings; warm sea by Irish standards.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The park starts to empty out, the chipper is still open, the coast is at its most honest. Storms rolling in off the Irish Sea give the harbour wall a battering worth watching.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Most of the holiday park shuts down. Talbot's Catch closes for parts of the off-season. The village goes very quiet. Burr Point is still there, and arguably better in a gale, but bring proper clothes.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Driving down to Burr Point itself

The access road is for residents only and there is nowhere to turn a car around at the bottom. Park at the harbour, walk the 2 km. The point is the walk.

Looking for the village pub

There isn't one in the village. The Village Inn and Gilmore's Bar that come up in searches are both in Kircubbin, ten minutes inland on the Strangford side. Drive to Portavogie, Ballywalter or Kircubbin for a proper pint.

Booking a hotel in Ballyhalbert

There isn't a hotel either. The accommodation here is the caravan park, full stop. For a room with a key, look at Portaferry or Donaghadee.

Searching for the airfield ruins

There is very little above ground. The runways were broken up after the war and the site is now caravans and grazing. The story is real; the photographable hardware is not.

Getting there.

By car

Belfast to Ballyhalbert is about 55 minutes via Newtownards and the A20/A2 down the Ards Peninsula. From Newtownards itself, allow 30 minutes on the coast road through Ballywalter.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus route 9/10 runs Belfast to Portaferry via Newtownards, Greyabbey and Ballywalter, stopping in Ballyhalbert. Roughly hourly Monday to Saturday, sparser on Sundays.

By train

No train. Bangor is the nearest station, then 30 minutes by road or bus down the peninsula.

By air

Belfast City (BHD) is about 50 minutes by car; Belfast International (BFS) about an hour and twenty; Dublin two and a half hours on a good run.