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BALLYCOLLA

CO. LAOIS · IE

Ballycolla
Baile Cholla, Co. Laois

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 08 / 08

Baile Cholla · Co. Laois

A small crossroads in south Laois with a hurling club that punches several weight classes above the village. One inn out the road, and a parish that knows the score.

Ballycolla is a small crossroads village in south Laois, where the R433 and R434 meet about eight kilometres south-west of Abbeyleix and four north-east of the M8. A hundred and thirty-odd people live in it. There is a Catholic church, a Church of Ireland church, a national school, and not a great deal else on the road itself. Be honest about that before you turn off for it.

The name was long taken to mean the townland of a man called Colla. The better reading is Baile a' Chalaidh, the townland of the long coarse sedgy grass, which tells you more about the ground than any story would. This is farming country at the eastern foot of the Slieve Bloom, the kind of south Laois parish that does its talking on a Sunday with a hurley.

Because the real subject here is hurling. The club is Clough-Ballacolla, drawing on Ballycolla and the neighbouring village of Clough, and for a small rural parish it has had a remarkable run - Laois senior hurling champions five times in six seasons up to 2025. The history runs deeper than the recent gold: an earlier Ballygeehan team out of this same patch supplied most of the Laois fifteen that won the county's only All-Ireland senior hurling title, back in 1915. In south Laois that is not a footnote. It is the parish record.

Come for a match if there is one on, or pass through on the Abbeyleix-to-Durrow road and stop for a pint at the Foxrock Inn out at Clough. The heritage is quiet and mostly in the ground - a castle the Cromwellian surveyors already found in ruins, a Mass-pit from the Penal years marked by a few stones in a fence. You will not spend a day here. You might spend a good evening.

Population

~136 (2016)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Crossroads village; castle recorded on the Down Survey c. 1657

Coords

52.8825° N, 7.4468° 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 The hurling

Clough-Ballacolla - five Laois senior hurling titles in six years.

The club is the identity of the place. Champions of Laois in 2020, '21, '22, '24 and '25, with the Bergin name on the team sheet. The roots go back to a Ballygeehan side that supplied the bulk of the Laois team for the county's only All-Ireland senior hurling title in 1915.

Stories & lore → 02 The crossroads

Where the R433 meets the R434, between Abbeyleix and Durrow.

Eight kilometres south-west of Abbeyleix, four north-east of the M8. A Catholic church, a Church of Ireland church, a school, and the floral displays that won the Tidy Towns a county streetscape award in 2024. That is the village.

Getting there → 03 The old ground

A vanished castle and a Penal-times Mass-pit in a field.

The Down Survey of the 1650s recorded a ruined castle at "Ballicalo". In the Penal years Mass was said in a pit out the land; part of the loose-stone altar is still pointed out in a fence between the townlands of Lughabarra and Tintore.

Stories & lore →

02 / 08

The pubs.

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

Mary's Bar (The Foxrock Inn)

Rural local, the community hub

Country pub & B&B, at Clough

Out the road at Clough, the village that shares the hurling club. Named for Mary Hyland; redeveloped by Sean and Marian Hyland in 1998 and run by them for over a quarter of a century, then taken on by the Bergin family of Clough in early 2023. A traditional inn with rooms above the bar. The social centre of the parish, and the place to be on a county final evening.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Foxrock Inn (Mary's Bar)	B&B with bar, at Clough	Ensuite rooms above the pub, with breakfast, on the edge of the Slieve Bloom. Family run. Coarse and game fishing within a few minutes, golf courses inside a quarter of an hour. A base for the quiet south-Laois countryside rather than a destination in itself - book ahead, it is small.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

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

Laois's only All-Ireland

Clough-Ballacolla, and 1915

The club has carried several names down the years - Ballygeehan, St Canice's, Cannonswood, Ballacolla - before settling as Clough-Ballacolla. The first golden age came around the First World War, when a Ballygeehan side won county titles year after year from 1914 to 1918 and supplied the bulk of the Laois team that took the county's only All-Ireland senior hurling championship in 1915. After that the wait was long: ninety-one years passed before the club won another Laois senior title, in 2009, beating Portlaoise in the final. Since then they have not looked back - county champions in 2011, 2015, and then five times in six years up to 2025, with Stephen Bergin and the Bergin clan to the fore. For a parish this size, it is an extraordinary haul.

Down Survey, c. 1657

The castle that was already a ruin

When Cromwell's surveyors mapped the country in the 1650s they recorded a ruined castle at "Ballicalo" - so the tower house here was already gone by the middle of the seventeenth century, and nothing of it stands today. Locals still place it near the Old Gardens and the Tintore crossroads. The lands changed hands many times after; the Caldbeck family held The Cottage at Ballacolla from the 1830s, and the larger estate of nearly a thousand acres was taken over by the Land Commission in December 1914. There is little to see now but the field names and the line of an old fence.

Penal times, in a field

The Mass-pit

In the Penal years, when Catholic worship was outlawed, Mass was said out in the open at a hollow in the land between the townlands of Lughabarra and Tintore. Part of the altar, built of loose stones, is still shown in the breast of the fence dividing the two. It is the kind of site that does not announce itself - no car park, no sign - but a local will point it out. Lughabarra itself has a curious basin of about five acres that fills with water in winter and dries out completely by summer.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

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

The crossroads and the churches A short stroll of the village itself - the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, the older Church of Ireland church, the school, and the planted streetscape that won the Tidy Towns a county award in 2024. Modest, but well kept.

1.5 kmdistance

25 mintime

Lughabarra and Tintore lanes Quiet farm lanes out toward the old castle ground and the Mass-pit fence. Nothing waymarked - this is working farmland, so keep to the roads and respect the land. Bring a local with you if you can; the field names carry the history.

Variesdistance

1 hourtime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet farming season, the land greening up, hurling leagues starting. A calm time to pass through.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the build toward the championship. If Clough-Ballacolla are playing, the parish empties into the ground.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The best time, and not by accident - county final season. A final weekend with the club involved is the village at full voltage.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, wet roads, little open. The inn at Clough is the one warm room. Otherwise quiet.

◐ 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.

Expecting a heritage day out

There is no castle standing, no abbey, no visitor centre. The history here is real but it is in the ground - a survey record, a Mass-pit, a few field names. Come for the place, not for the monuments.

Mixing up Ballycolla and Clough

They are two villages a few kilometres apart that share one hurling club and one famous pub. The Foxrock Inn and Mary's Bar are at Clough. Set the right one on your phone before you drive out.

A long stay

This is a crossroads parish, not a base. An evening, a pint, a match - that is the right length. Sleep in Abbeyleix or Durrow if you want a town around you.

Getting there.

By car

At the junction of the R433 and R434 in south Laois. Eight kilometres south-west of Abbeyleix, four kilometres north-east of junction 3 of the M8. From Portlaoise, south on the N77/R433, about 25 km.

By bus

No regular scheduled service through the village. Local Link Laois covers the rural routes - check timetables. Bus Eireann serves Abbeyleix and Durrow nearby.

By train

No station. Nearest is Portlaoise on the Dublin-Cork line, about 25 km north.