Ballinrobe, Baile an Róba, Co. Mayo

Baile an Róba · Co. Mayo

The only racecourse in Connacht, and the field where the word 'boycott' was invented.

Ballinrobe is a south Mayo market town between two lakes, on a river that gave it its name. Lough Mask sits four kilometres west, Lough Carra the same to the east, and the River Robe runs through the middle on its way from one to the other. Three thousand people live here. The Tuesday and Friday markets have been going, in some form, since King James I granted Thomas Nolan a patent for them in 1606.

Two things put the town on the map for outsiders. The first is the racecourse on the Castlebar road - the only track in Connacht, ten fixtures a year, mostly summer evenings under flat light over Lough Mask. The second is what happened in the autumn of 1880 at Lough Mask House, six kilometres out the Neale road. Captain Boycott was the land agent. The tenants withdrew labour, the shops withdrew custom, the postman wouldn't carry his letters, and a parish priest and a Boston journalist hit on the verb that's been doing service in every language since. The house is private. The story is local.

Beyond that there's the Augustinian friary ruin by the river, founded before 1337 by Elizabeth de Clare, granddaughter of Edward I. There's a set of Harry Clarke stained-glass windows in St. Mary's Catholic church from 1924 and 1925 - sixteen panels, the deep blues and reds Clarke is known for, and very few visitors most days. There's the Robe walk along the river. And there's Mask, which any angler will tell you is the second-best brown trout lake in Ireland after Corrib, depending on the week.

Don't make Ballinrobe a day-trip from Galway. Stay one night, eat in the town, drive out to Lough Mask at dusk, and let the place do what it does - a working town, a fishing town, a racing town, doing all three at once.

Population

3,148

Walk score

Main Street to the river in five minutes

Founded

Market patent 1606 (Augustinian friary pre-1337)

Coords

53.6333° N, 9.2333° 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 The racecourse

Connacht's only track, ten fixtures a year.

Ballinrobe Racecourse has been on its current site since 1921 and is the only flat-and-jumps course west of the Shannon. Ten meetings a year, mostly summer evenings, gates from three. McHale Raceday in August is the one to circle.

Stories & lore → 02 The Boycott house

Six kilometres west, the word was born.

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was Lord Erne's land agent at Lough Mask House between September and December 1880. The local tenants stopped working for him, the shops stopped serving him, and Father John O'Malley and a journalist named the tactic after him. Inside ten weeks the word was in print everywhere.

Stories & lore → 03 The lakes

Lough Mask west, Lough Carra east.

South Mayo's two big inland fisheries sit a few kilometres either side of town. Mask is the bigger one - brown trout, deep limestone water, and a mayfly hatch in the second half of May that anglers plan their year around.

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:

The Valkenburg

Family-run, all-day

Hotel bar & restaurant, Main Street

Family-run hotel with the bar, restaurant and rooms on the same Main Street footprint. The pub end does a good pint, the kitchen does a proper carvery, and on a race day half the town passes through it.

The Bowers

Local, food-led

Bar, restaurant & B&B, Abbey Street

On Abbey Street, named for the river walk it sits beside. Restaurant on one side, bar on the other, six rooms upstairs. The Sunday lunch is the kind people drive in from Cong for.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Valkenburg restaurant	Hotel restaurant	€€	Pub-hotel kitchen - carvery at lunch, full menu in the evening. Mayo lamb when they have it, fish from Galway when they don't. Solid rather than show-off, which is what you want after a day on Lough Mask.
The Bowers	Bar & restaurant	€€	The town's Sunday-lunch venue, and a steady weekday dinner the rest of the time. Book ahead on Sunday - they fill up by 1pm and the kitchen doesn't extend to magic.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Valkenburg	Hotel, Main Street	The town's hotel since the old JJ Gannon's stopped trading as one. Family-run, en-suite rooms over the bar, breakfast included. Two minutes' walk to anything.
The Bowers	B&B over the bar	Six rooms above the restaurant on Abbey Street. Quieter end of the town, river walk on the doorstep, the smell of the kitchen drifting up at six.
A house on Lough Mask	Self-catering	Drive ten minutes out the Neale road and the rentals on the lake shore halve the price of a town hotel and triple the view. Worth it if you've got two nights.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

How a verb was made in ten weeks

Captain Boycott

Charles Cunningham Boycott was a former British army captain who had taken on the job of land agent for Lord Erne at Lough Mask House, six kilometres outside Ballinrobe. In autumn 1880, after a bad harvest, the tenants asked for a 25% rent cut. They were offered 10. Charles Stewart Parnell, on the 19th of September, told a Land League meeting in Ennis to treat any man who took an evicted tenant's farm as 'a leper of old.' Father John O'Malley of The Neale, with the Boston journalist James Redpath sat across from him in a parlour, came up with the verb on the 23rd. Inside weeks the labourers had walked off, the shopkeepers wouldn't serve him, the postman wouldn't carry his letters, and fifty Orangemen had to be brought down from Ulster under army escort to dig his potatoes. He left Ireland on the 1st of December. The word was in the OED by 1888.

Connacht's only track

The racecourse

Horse racing on the plain at Ballinrobe goes back to 1774, with a steeplechase recorded in 1834. The current course was laid out in 1921, and it has been the only racecourse in Connacht ever since - Galway is, technically, in the same province but a different world. Ten fixtures a year, mostly Friday and Monday evenings in summer, with gates from three and the first race at five. McHale Raceday in August carries the McHale Mayo National and the Mayo Hurdle, the two biggest pots run on the course. The Lodge at Ashford Castle Ladies Day in late June is the dressed-up one. The flat light over the lake at the back of the stand is the part nobody photographs and everyone remembers.

A week in May the anglers wait for

Lough Mask and the mayfly

Lough Mask is the second-largest of the limestone lakes after Corrib, ten miles long and three across at its widest. It is brown-trout water of the better sort. The mayfly hatch comes off in the second half of May, generally - the precise week is what you ring the boatmen about - and for ten days or so the trout that have been ignoring everything come up to take a fly that has just spent a year as a larva at the bottom of the lake. People plan their year around it. The boats go out from Cushlough, Cahir and Caher Bay. The wind is the whole story. If you do not know what you are doing, hire a man who does.

Three layers of the same town

Friary, Workhouse, Two Medals

The Augustinian friary ruin by the river was founded before 1337 by Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I - the first of nine Augustinian houses west of the Shannon. The Union Workhouse, off the Castlebar road, opened in 1839 and held 2,000 souls at the worst of An Gorta Mór; substantial blocks of it still stand. And on the Cornmarket there is a memorial to John King, born in Currabee just outside the town in 1865, one of only nineteen sailors in US Navy history to be awarded the Medal of Honor twice. The town wears all three quietly. You will walk past any of them without noticing if nobody points.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

The Bower Walk Riverside path along the Robe from the bridge by Abbey Street out past the friary ruin and back along the road. Tarmac, mostly flat, and the only walk in town that doesn't involve a road shoulder. Do it after breakfast.

3 km loopdistance

40 mintime

Lough Mask shore at Cushlough Drive ten minutes west out the Neale road to the pier at Cushlough. The shore walk is short - the lake is the point. If a boatman is heading out and there's a spare seat, ask. The mayfly fortnight in late May is the time it earns the description.

Boat or cardistance

2 hourstime

Augustinian friary ruin Five minutes from Main Street, down by the river. Roofless, well kept, no admission, no signage worth speaking of. Sit on the grass and read the Wikipedia entry on your phone - that is honestly the experience.

In-towndistance

20 mintime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The mayfly hatch on Lough Mask runs in the second half of May and the town fills up with anglers. The racecourse opens in mid-April. The Robe is full and the friary looks well in the long light.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Six of the ten race fixtures fall between June and August. McHale Raceday in August is the social anchor of the year - book a room weeks ahead. Ladies Day on the 22nd of June is the dressed-up one.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The races wrap in September and the town gets back to itself. The light on Mask through October is, frankly, ridiculous. Pubs pare back the kitchen hours but stay open.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Quiet. The lakes turn cold and grey, the racecourse is shut, and a lot of the reason to come is on hold. The pubs are still pubs. Bring layers and low expectations and you will be fine.

◐ 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.

Treating Ballinrobe as a Cong day-trip stop

Cong is twelve kilometres north and most coaches treat Ballinrobe as the lay-by on the way. It is not. Stay a night, eat in the town, drive to Mask at dusk - or go straight to Cong and don't pretend.

Fishing Lough Mask without a boat or a guide

The lake is ten miles long, the wind decides everything, and the bank options are limited. Hire a boat at Cushlough or Cahir Bay with a man who knows the lake. The €150 a day is the difference between a story and a sulk.

Looking for the Boycott house from the road

Lough Mask House is private, lived in, and not signposted. The story is the headline; the building is somebody's home. The plaque in the town tells you what you need.

A race meeting in the rain in trainers

Ballinrobe is a country track on a flood plain. The going turns soft fast and the walk from the car park is grass. Wellies in the boot, a coat over the arm, and you are sorted. Heels and the racecourse will sort you out within the first race.

Getting there.

By car

Galway to Ballinrobe is 50 minutes on the N84 via Headford. Castlebar is 30 minutes north on the N84/N60. Westport is 40 minutes via Castlebar or the back road through Partry.

By bus

Bus Éireann 419 runs Galway to Ballina via Ballinrobe and Castlebar, several services daily. The town stop is on Main Street.

By train

No station. Nearest is Castlebar (30 min by road) on the Dublin-Westport line.

By air

Ireland West Airport (NOC) at Knock is 50 minutes by car. Galway and Shannon are both within two hours.