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heritage · Friday 28 August 2026 · Various 
Megalithomania Festival
At Ballinglen Museum of Art · Ballinglen, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo
At Ballinglen Museum of Art · Ballinglen, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo
Held across three days at the end of August, the Megalithomania Festival brings together musicians, artists, researchers and curious visitors for an exploration of the ancient world that underpins this corner of Mayo. The name says it all: this is a gathering for people genuinely fascinated by megalithic sites, peat bogs, folk traditions and the deep past of the west of Ireland. Organised by Spooky Beore, it sits at an unusual crossroads between community arts festival and serious heritage inquiry - equal parts music weekend and open-air classroom. If you have ever stood at a standing stone and wanted more than a signpost to explain what you were looking at, this is the weekend for it.
The festival runs from Friday 28 August to Sunday 30 August 2026 at the Ballinglen Museum of Art, a handsome purpose-built gallery that opened in 2020 on Main Street in Ballycastle. The building has two floors of exhibition space and a glass atrium on the second floor looking out towards the sea - a fitting backdrop for a weekend that thinks about landscape and time.
Programming across the three days covers a wide span: workshops on folk magic and ancient mythology, live music and traditional dancing, ecology talks relating to the West Mayo landscape, lectures on local megalithic archaeology, and informal conversations between speakers and attendees. The format is deliberate - this is not a festival where you watch from a distance, but one where the conversations between sessions are part of the point. West Mayo has a remarkable concentration of megalithic monuments, from the Ceide Fields (the world’s oldest known field system, preserved under blanket bog a short drive away) to court cairns and standing stones scattered across the North Mayo coastline. The festival uses that local context as its starting point.
Multiple ticketing tiers are available, starting from EUR 54.99, with options to suit the level of involvement you want across the full weekend.
Ballycastle is a small village on the north coast of Mayo, roughly 50 km north of Ballina and about 25 km north-east of Belmullet. The most straightforward approach is by car - from Ballina, take the N26 towards Crossmolina and then follow the R314 north along the coast; the drive takes around 50 minutes. From Westport, allow around an hour and a quarter via Castlebar and Crossmolina. Public transport to Ballycastle is limited, so driving or arranging a lift is practical for this one. Parking on and around Main Street is generally available, though a weekend festival will bring extra visitors - arriving a little ahead of sessions is sensible.
The Ballinglen Arts Foundation has been drawing Irish and international artists to this part of Mayo since 1992, and the permanent collection in the museum reflects thirty years of work inspired by the local landscape. The nearby Ceide Fields interpretive centre is one of the most thought-provoking heritage sites in the country and fits naturally alongside a weekend spent thinking about ancient Ireland. There is more to see in Ballycastle and across Co. Mayo.
Heading to Ballinglen Museum of Art in Ballycastle? Mayo has plenty more to see. Read the Ballycastle area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.