Ballyferriter, Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Co. Kerry

Baile an Fheirtéaraigh · Co. Kerry

The most westerly Irish-speaking village in Europe, with Smerwick on its doorstep.

Ballyferriter is what happens when you keep driving past Dingle, past Ventry, past Slea Head, and the road bends north along Smerwick Harbour. A church, three pubs, a school, a museum, a Garda station and a couple of hundred people. The signs are in Irish only. The shop assistant will switch to English when you do, but she will not start there. This is the most westerly Irish-speaking village in Europe and it wears that quietly.

The village is named for Piaras Feiritéar - Pierce Ferriter - poet, soldier, and the last Gaelic chieftain of the peninsula. He held Tralee Castle against the Cromwellians, surrendered on a promise of safe passage in 1653, and was hanged at Killarney for his trouble. His poems are still recited locally. His family ruins still stand. Walk into Tigh Pheig and ask about him in Irish; you will get an answer that lasts an hour.

And then there is Smerwick. The harbour the village sits on. In November 1580 a force of six hundred Papal soldiers - Spanish, Italian, a few Irish - surrendered to the English under terms, and were killed where they stood over three days. Raleigh swung an axe. Spenser, secretary to the Lord Deputy, was likely there. The headland it happened on is called Dún an Óir, the Fort of Gold, and you can walk out to it on a quiet afternoon and stand on the grass where it ended. Nothing marks it but the wind. The Gaeltacht remembers without needing a sign.

Population

~250

Walk score

Three pubs, a church, a museum - five minutes from end to end

Coords

52.1752° N, 10.4140° 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 An Ghaeltacht

Irish first, English a distant second.

About three in four people in the parish use Irish daily. Sit at the bar in Tigh Pheig and listen to two old men argue about the weather - you will not catch a word, and that is the point.

Stories & lore → 02 Smerwick

Six hundred men killed in three days.

Down at Dún an Óir in November 1580, Lord Grey de Wilton put a Papal garrison of Spanish, Italian and Irish soldiers to the sword after they surrendered. Walter Raleigh led the execution bands. Edmund Spenser was probably watching.

Stories & lore → 03 Early Christian

Gallarus, Riasc, ogham stones in fields.

Gallarus Oratory two kilometres east is the only intact dry-stone oratory on the island. Riasc, ten minutes the other way, has cross-slabs and ogham older than most countries. Both are free, both are unfenced, both are quiet most of the year.

Walks & outings →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Tigh Pheig

Locals, Irish-first

Village pub

On the main street. Small, warm, wooden, and the working language at the bar is Irish. A pint and a quiet ear and you will pick up half of it. The other half you do not need.

Tigh Bhric

West Kerry Brewery

Pub, brewery & food

The brewery in the back makes the only beer brewed in the Gaeltacht - Cúl Dorcha stout, Béal Bán pale ale. Food at lunch and dinner in season. The brewery taproom and the village pub are the same room.

Tigh an tSaorsaigh

Old, unhurried

Pub & B&B

Sayers' on the road. A quiet local pub with rooms upstairs. The kind of place where a pint stretches into a conversation and the conversation stretches into a second pint.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Tigh Bhric	Pub & brewery food	€€	Lunch and dinner in season - chowder, beer-battered fish, a stew that has done some thinking. Eat with a Cúl Dorcha from the brewery six metres away. The shortest supply chain in Ireland.
Tig Áine	Café	€	Day-time café in the village. Coffee, soup, brown bread, a bit of cake. Good for a sit after Gallarus or before the harbour walk. Closes when the season closes.
Tigh Pheig kitchen	Pub food	€€	Pub food when the kitchen is on - fish, stew, a toasted sandwich done properly. Hours are seasonal and not always posted. Stick your head in and ask.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Tigh an tSaorsaigh	Pub with rooms	Five rooms above the pub on the main street. Simple, clean, and the breakfast is downstairs at a table the locals will eventually join. About as Gaeltacht a stay as you can have.
Gleann Domhnach Eco Camping	Camping & glamping	Family-run eco-campsite a few kilometres out the road toward Dunquin. Tent pitches, bell tents, compost loos, an outdoor kitchen and a fire pit at night. Walk to Wine Strand from the gate.
An Cuasán	B&B	Modern guesthouse on the road into the village with views over Smerwick Harbour. Five rooms, breakfast looking at the water, ten minutes' walk to all three pubs.
A cottage on Smerwick	Self-catering	There are a handful of self-catering houses scattered between Ballyferriter, Ballydavid and the harbour. Off-season they go for half what a Dingle hotel charges and you wake to the sound of the bay.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

The poet who held the line

Piaras Feiritéar

Pierce Ferriter - Piaras Feiritéar - was the last chief of the Norman-Irish Feiritéar family who had ruled this corner of the peninsula for four centuries and gone fully Gaelic somewhere along the way. He wrote bardic laments, love poetry to a woman whose name is still argued about, and verse in the high European style alongside Irish in the strict old metres. When the wars came he led the local resistance against the Cromwellians. He held Tralee Castle from 1641. He was the last Gaelic chieftain in Kerry to surrender, in 1653, and he did it on a written promise of safe passage from Brigadier Nelson. They took him at Castlemaine on the way home, walked him to Killarney, and hanged him on the 15th of October. Three hundred and seventy years on, the village still carries his name.

Six hundred men, three days, no quarter

The Smerwick Massacre, 1580

In September 1580, six hundred Papal soldiers - Spanish, Italian, a handful of Irish - landed at Smerwick Harbour to support the Second Desmond Rebellion. They built a small fort on the headland called Dún an Óir, the Fort of Gold. Lord Grey de Wilton arrived with English forces by land in early November. The garrison surrendered on the 10th, on what they understood to be terms. Grey gave the order. Captain Walter Raleigh led the execution bands. Edmund Spenser, the poet of The Faerie Queene, was secretary to the Lord Deputy and was almost certainly present. About six hundred soldiers were killed over the three days that followed. Twenty years later in London, when Raleigh was on trial for his life, the Smerwick killings were still being held against him. He could not explain them away. The headland is grass and rabbit-holes now. There is no plaque. The village does not need one.

The early Christian quarter

Riasc and Gallarus

Two of the most important early monastic sites in Ireland sit within walking distance of the village. Riasc, two kilometres east, is the foundations of a sixth-to-twelfth century monastery - beehive cells, an enclosure wall, cross-slabs and a famous pillar carved with spirals and a Greek alphabet that is still arguing with archaeologists. Gallarus Oratory, another two kilometres on, is the only intact dry-stone oratory left standing on the island - corbel-vaulted sandstone, no mortar, no roof timber, watertight after a thousand winters. Both are unfenced, free, and quiet most days outside July and August. Go early. Listen.

The living language

An Ghaeltacht bheo

Around three quarters of the parish use Irish as the daily working language of the home, the school, the bar and the shop. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne - the local Irish-language education centre - runs courses out of the village all year, and University College Cork keeps a house here for an academic-year immersion course. Students drift in for a fortnight and stay for a summer. The pubs run set-dancing nights in Irish. The school is a Gaelscoil. None of this is performed for visitors. The village simply happens to be Irish-speaking and has gone on being so through every decade that told it not to. Speak a few words back when you are spoken to. Everyone here has English. Almost nobody chooses to start with it.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Smerwick Harbour and Dún an Óir From the village down to the harbour, along the strand, out to the headland where the Fort of Gold once stood. The earthworks are faint. The view across the bay to the Three Sisters is not. Bring a windbreaker - the harbour does not pretend to be sheltered.

5 km loopdistance

1.5 hourstime

Gallarus Oratory Two kilometres east of the village off the R559. Park at the visitor centre or at the lay-by on the old road for free. The oratory itself is in a small walled field. Stoop through the door. Nine hundred years of Irish weather have not got past it.

2 km drive, 200 m walkdistance

30 mintime

Riasc Monastic Site Signposted off the road two kilometres east of the village. A reconstructed enclosure with the stump of a beehive cell and a carved pillar that is one of the early masterworks of Irish stone-carving. No fence, no ticket. Often empty.

200 m walk from cardistance

20 mintime

Sybil Head and the Three Sisters Drive west to Ferriter's Cove, park, and walk up onto the cliffs. Sybil Head and the three peaks called the Three Sisters drop straight into the Atlantic. On a clear day the Blaskets are laid out south-west like a sentence the sea is still finishing.

8 km loopdistance

3 hourstime

Wine Strand Small, sheltered cove between Ballyferriter and Ballydavid, named for the Spanish wine ships that supposedly sheltered here. Clean, shallow, almost empty most days. A swim worth driving five minutes for.

1 km of sanddistance

However long you havetime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, the sites are empty, the language schools have not opened up yet. The peninsula light in April is the best argument for getting on a plane.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Slea Head coaches roll past and the language students fill the village. Pubs hum. Book a bed two months out or stay outside the village and drive in.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

September is the quiet headline. Big skies, big seas, the pubs settle, and Gallarus to yourself before lunch.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Most things shut. One pub will be open on a given night, not always the same one. The village is most itself, and that is not for everyone.

◐ 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.

Doing Ballyferriter as a half-hour photo stop on the Slea Head loop

Most coaches do exactly this. You will see the church and a closed door. Park, walk, sit in a pub, drive out to Riasc - give it half a day at least.

Asking which pub the Star Wars crew drank in

They filmed on Sybil Head and Ceann Sibéal. They did not drink in the village. The fifth person to ask gets a shorter answer than the first.

The Gallarus Oratory ticketed visitor centre

The oratory itself is free and always has been. Park at the lay-by on the old road, walk two minutes, save your money for a pint.

Treating the Irish on the signs as decoration

The signs are not bilingual here, they are in Irish. The placename has been Baile an Fheirtéaraigh on the official map since 2005. Read them as the working name of the place, not a translation exercise.

Getting there.

By car

From Dingle, take the R559 - Slea Head Drive - clockwise, about 25 minutes the scenic way past Ventry and Slea Head, or 15 minutes the direct way over the Conor Pass shoulder via Milltown. Either is twisty. Hire a small car.

By bus

Local Link 275A runs a Dingle-Ballyferriter-Dunquin loop several times daily in summer, fewer in winter. The bus stops in the village.

By air

Kerry Airport (KIR) is 90 km - about 1h 45m by road. Cork is 2h 45m. Shannon is 3h.