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BALLAGHADERREEN

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Ballaghaderreen
Bealach an Doirín, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 09 / 09

Bealach an Doirín · Co. Roscommon

A cathedral town that used to be in Mayo, with a tower you can see for miles and a county line that the football club refuses to recognise.

Ballaghaderreen is a market town of a little under two and a half thousand people in the far north-west corner of Roscommon, where the county meets both Mayo and Sligo. Except it was not always Roscommon. Until 1899 the town and the parish of Edmondstown were part of County Mayo, in the barony of Costello. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 moved the line and put Ballaghaderreen into Roscommon. That is a century and a quarter ago now. The town is administratively Roscommon. The Gaelic football club still plays in the Mayo championship, and nobody here thinks that needs explaining.

The town you see grew under one family. When Luke Dillon brought his people to Ballaghaderreen in 1812 he began the most interesting chapter the place has. Dillon House on the Market Square was where John Blake Dillon was born in 1814 - the man who, with Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy, founded The Nation newspaper in 1842. His son John Dillon, the Irish Parliamentary Party leader, called the same house his home in the West. The square is still the shape of the town, and the house is still on it.

Then there is the cathedral, which is the thing you actually see. The Cathedral of the Annunciation and St Nathy was begun in 1855 under Bishop Patrick Durcan, finished and opened in 1860, built in the Gothic Revival style. In 1912 the architect W.H. Byrne added the bell tower, the carillon and a new sacristy. The tower is close to sixty metres, far too big for the town around it, and that is the point. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of Achonry, which reaches across three counties, and Ballaghaderreen was chosen to hold it.

Do not come for a resort. The N5 bypass took the through-traffic away from the square in 2014, which is good for the town and means you have to choose to stop. When you do, there is one substantial pub-restaurant-guesthouse on the square, a cathedral worth the neck-craning, a heritage walk that takes in Dillon House and the old Convent of Mercy, and Lough Gara and its iron-age crannogs a few kilometres south. It is a quiet town that produced loud people. That is most of its character.

Population

2,387 (2022)

Founded

Market town that grew under the Dillon family from the early 19th century

Coords

53.9000° N, 8.5800° 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 cathedral

Gothic Revival, begun 1855, finished 1860, the tower added in 1912.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation and St Nathy is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Achonry, a diocese that straddles Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo. The bell tower W.H. Byrne added in 1912 runs to nearly sixty metres. You see it before you see the town.

Stories & lore → 02 The county line

Roscommon on the map since 1899. Mayo in the GAA fixtures still.

Ballaghaderreen and Edmondstown were transferred from County Mayo to Roscommon under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. The administration moved. The football club did not. Ballaghaderreen GAA still affiliates to Mayo, and nobody local finds that strange.

Stories & lore → 03 The people it produced

Matt Molloy, Garry Hynes, the Dillons. A small town with a long reach.

The Chieftains flute player Matt Molloy was born here. So was Garry Hynes, the Druid Theatre director and first woman to win a Tony for directing a play. And Dillon House on the square raised three generations of Irish nationalist politics.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Durkin's

The hub of the town, family-run

Bar, restaurant & guesthouse, Market Square

On the Market Square, and effectively the centre of the town's social life. A family-run bar, restaurant and guesthouse that was completely renovated and reopened in December 2020 - refurbished bar, a cocktail bar, the Square One cafe, and rooms upstairs. The steak is what locals send you for, and it arrives very large. If you are stopping in Ballaghaderreen for a pint, a feed or a bed, this is realistically the one place that does all three.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Durkin's Restaurant	Restaurant at the guesthouse, Market Square	€€	The proper sit-down meal in the town. A la carte menu, a long-standing reputation for food, and a steak that has its own following. There are private function rooms behind it that take everything from a christening to a full wedding. On the square, easy to find, and the obvious dinner if you are staying over.
Square One Café	Café at Durkin's, Market Square	€	The daytime end of Durkin's - coffee, lunch, somewhere to sit on the square that is not a pub. Useful if you have walked the heritage loop and want to sit down before driving on.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Durkin's Bar, Restaurant & Guesthouse	Guesthouse on the Market Square	Twenty-three en-suite rooms over the bar and restaurant on the square, free wifi, free parking. Renovated throughout in 2020. It is the main accommodation in the town itself, and its location on the square means you can do the cathedral, the heritage walk and your dinner all on foot. Book directly or by phone for the better rate.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

1855 - 1860 - 1912

The cathedral and the diocese

The Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Nathy was commissioned by Bishop Patrick Durcan, begun in 1855 and consecrated in November 1860. It is built in the Gothic Revival style, and it is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Achonry, a diocese that takes in parts of Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo and sits within the ecclesiastical Province of Tuam. The episcopal centre of Achonry had been established in the town in 1831. In 1912 the project architect William H. Byrne added the bell tower - close to sixty metres - along with a carillon of bells and a new sacristy. The result is a building far larger than the town that surrounds it, which is exactly what a cathedral seat is meant to be. It is free to enter and it is the reason most people stop.

1898 - 1899

When the county line moved

Ballaghaderreen and the parish of Edmondstown were transferred from County Mayo to County Roscommon under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, effective from 1899. The change was administrative and the maps were redrawn. The loyalty was not. The Gaelic football club, Ballaghaderreen GAA, continues to affiliate with Mayo GAA and plays in the Mayo championship to this day. The Irish name, Bealach an Doirín, means the way of the little oak grove - the road through, which is what the town always was, a crossing point between the West and the rest of the country. The county it crossed into changed. The town did not move.

Three generations on the square

Dillon House and The Nation

Luke Dillon moved his family to Ballaghaderreen in 1812 and Dillon House on the Market Square became, over three generations, one of the more consequential addresses in Irish nationalist history. John Blake Dillon was born in the house in 1814 and went on to found The Nation newspaper in 1842 alongside Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy. His son, John Dillon, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party in its last years, regarded the same house as his home in the West. The building still stands on the square, central and plain, the oldest house in the town.

Molloy, Hynes, Moran

A small town with a long reach

For a town of its size Ballaghaderreen has sent out a remarkable number of people. Matt Molloy, the flute player who joined The Chieftains and is one of the defining voices of Irish traditional music, was born here. So was Garry Hynes, co-founder of the Druid Theatre Company in Galway and the first woman ever to win a Tony Award for directing a play. The Mayo footballer Andy Moran, Footballer of the Year in 2017, is a Ballaghaderreen man too - playing, naturally, for Mayo. In 2017 the town also took in a large group of Syrian refugees as an Emergency Reception Centre, and was given a People of the Year Award in 2018 for the welcome.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Town heritage walk A leisurely circuit of the town that takes in the cathedral, Dillon House on the Market Square - the oldest house in the town - and the old Convent of Mercy. Compact, flat, and the best way to understand why a town this size has a building this big at its centre.

2 km loopdistance

45 mintime

Bockagh Hill viewpoint South-west of the town, Bockagh Hill looks down over Lough Gara. On a clear day you can pick out the iron-age crannogs sitting in the water. The views are the reason to go up; bring boots if it has been wet.

Short climbdistance

30 - 45 mintime

Lung / Lough Gara Way A long-distance trail and a stage of the Beara-Breifne Way, which follows the 1603 march of O'Sullivan Beare. The route starts north of Lough O'Flynn, follows the Lung River up to Ballaghaderreen past numerous iron-age ringforts, then runs alongside Lough Gara into Kilfree in County Sligo. Walk it whole or pick a section. The bog trails at Coolaghthane Bridge, 3 km out, are an easier looped option.

45 km point to pointdistance

Full day or stagedtime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, mild, the cathedral effectively to yourself. Good walking weather for Bockagh Hill and the Lough Gara trails before the bog gets boggy.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Longest days for the Lung / Lough Gara Way, and the town is at its busiest, which for Ballaghaderreen still means quiet. Some Knock and Ireland West Airport traffic passes nearby but rarely stops.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Low light on the cathedral tower and colour on the Curlew Mountains to the north. A good month for the walks and the least likely to rain on the hill.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short, cold and wet. The bog trails turn heavy and some services cut their hours. The cathedral and Durkin's keep going, which between them covers most of what you came for.

◐ 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 it as a destination in its own right

Be honest with yourself about scale. Ballaghaderreen is a working market town with one substantial pub-restaurant, a great cathedral and a good walk. That is a worthwhile half-day, not a holiday. Pair it with Boyle, Lough Gara or the run west to Mayo.

Driving the N5 bypass and ticking the town off

The bypass opened in 2014 and takes you cleanly past the whole place. If you do not turn off for the square you have seen nothing of it. The cathedral and Dillon House are a two-minute detour, not the motorway view.

Correcting anyone about the GAA

Yes, it is in Roscommon. Yes, the football club plays for Mayo. No, this is not a mistake and it is not up for discussion. Let it be the thing about the town that does not quite add up.

Getting there.

By car

Ballaghaderreen sits just off the N5, the main Longford to Westport road, with the bypass running to the north of the town since 2014. Roscommon town is about 45 min south-east, Castlerea around 30 min south, and Castlebar in Mayo roughly 45 min west.

By bus

The town is served by buses on the Dublin to Ballina route, which stop daily. Local Link covers the wider rural area; check current timetables before relying on it.

By train

No station in the town - it closed in 1963. The nearest railway stations are Castlerea (about 21 km) and Boyle (about 26 km), both on the Dublin to Westport line.

By air

Ireland West Airport (Knock) is the nearest, about 15 km west. Knock handles regular UK and European flights and is much closer than Dublin for this corner of the country.