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BALLINA

CO. TIPPERARY · IE

Ballina
Béal an Átha

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 09 / 09

Béal an Átha · Co. Tipperary

Two counties, one bridge, one lake — and the lake runs everything.

Ballina is the Tipperary half of a twin town that works as one. Walk across the bridge — new since May 2025 and named Brian Boru — and you are in Clare, standing in front of a twelfth-century cathedral with a runic stone inside carved by a Viking called Thorgrim. The county boundary runs through the middle of the River Shannon. The towns do not acknowledge it much.

It is a lake town first. Lough Derg opens up immediately to the north and the whole economy of a summer afternoon organises itself around it — boats on the water, people eating riverside, the odd paddleboarder making slow progress against the current. Goosers on the Ballina bank has been feeding people from a spot beside the Shannon long enough that it has become a reason in itself to make the trip.

The hinterland matters too. Drive four and a half kilometres out the Portroe road and there is a trailhead for Tountinna — 459 metres of Arra Mountains, the Graves of the Leinstermen at the top, and Lough Derg laid out below you like something that took a very long time to arrange. It did. It is the widened Shannon, backed up behind the hydroelectric scheme at Ardnacrusha downstream.

Every July the twin towns run the Féile Brian Ború festival — music, water events, heritage tours, and a few days of the kind of organised community activity that feels less organised than it is. The rest of the year is quieter and slightly more itself.

Population

2,959

Walk score

Cross the bridge to Clare in three minutes

Coords

52.8097° N, 8.4376° 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 twin town

Two counties on the same bridge.

Ballina is Tipperary. Killaloe across the water is Clare. For years they shared one old thirteen-arch bridge, one set of traffic jams, and one argument about who owned the better side. A new bridge opened in May 2025 and resolved the traffic. The argument continues.

Stories & lore → 02 Lough Derg

The Shannon widens here and keeps widening.

Ireland's third-largest lake is warm enough to swim in by July. The Blueway runs 160km of shoreline. Boats, paddleboards, kayaks — the whole apparatus is available for hire, and the water is calmer than the Atlantic coast by a considerable margin.

Walks & water → 03 Brian Boru

High King of Ireland. Died 1014. Still very much present.

His palace at Kincora stood on the Killaloe hill for decades. The new bridge across the Shannon is named after him. There is a festival every July. The cathedral across the river dates to 1225 and sits where his banqueting hall once was. He does not appear to have gone anywhere.

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:

Goosers Bar & Restaurant

Lough Derg, fireplace, no fuss

Bar and eating house, riverside

On the Tipperary bank of the Shannon. The front bar is a proper pub with a view of the water. The restaurant at the back has a fireplace and a blackboard that changes daily — fresh fish, oysters, mussels, Irish stew. Operated by Thomas and Fidelma Andrews, both chefs. Book for dinner.

Flanagan's on the Lake

Outdoors in summer, whiskey tower inside

Gastro pub, steakhouse

Beside the Shannon in Ballina. Steak and grill menu, outside terrace when the weather obliges, and an on-site whiskey tower for tasting sessions. Open seven days from noon.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Goosers Bar & Restaurant	Pub food and fresh fish	€€	The blackboard specials are the point. Oysters and mussels from local sources, fresh fish, brown bread with the soup. Lunch and dinner. The riverside location earns its reputation.
Tuscany Bistro	Italian, family-run	€€	Main Street, Ballina. Pizza, pasta, antipasti — done carefully by a family that also runs a Castletroy location. Weekend evenings only (Friday–Sunday). Small and unpretentious. Booking advisable.
Flanagan's on the Lake	Steakhouse and bar food	€€	Lunch and dinner seven days. Solid Irish and international menu. Good option if Goosers is full.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Lakeside Hotel & Leisure Centre	4-star hotel, Killaloe (Clare side)	Sits on the riverbank looking back at Ballina. Fifty-five rooms, leisure centre with 18-metre pool, the Maureen O'Hara bar. Technically a Killaloe/Clare address but functionally the accommodation hub for both towns. The view of the bridge from the waterfront rooms earns its keep.
B&Bs and self-catering on the Tipperary shore	Various	Several family-run guesthouses in and around Ballina. The Portroe road and the Arra Mountain foothills have self-catering options where the prices ease and you wake up looking at the lake.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

The palace that was the capital of Ireland

Kincora

Brian Ború, High King of Ireland, kept his palace at Kincora on the hill above Killaloe from 1002 until his death at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. For those twelve years Killaloe was effectively the seat of Irish power. Nothing of the palace survives above ground — it was demolished after his death and levelled entirely in 1119. The Catholic Church in Killaloe now stands on the site of the banqueting hall. The new bridge over the Shannon is named after him. He has not been forgotten.

Thorgrim's stone

The Viking in the Cathedral

Inside St Flannan's Cathedral in Killaloe — completed in 1225, on the site of Donal Mór O'Brien's earlier church — there is a stone carved in both runic and ogham script. It reads, more or less: 'Thorgrim carved this cross.' A Viking left his name in two alphabets on a stone in an Irish cathedral and it survived eight centuries. Nobody knows who Thorgrim was beyond his name. The cathedral also holds a Romanesque doorway from a lost earlier building and a twelfth-century Celtic cross brought in from Kilfenora.

May 2025

The new bridge

For decades the only crossing between Ballina and Killaloe was the old thirteen-arch stone bridge, built around 1650 and widened in 1780. The traffic through it was a single lane at a time and a source of reliable daily frustration for everyone in both towns. In May 2025 a new bridge opened upstream — named Brian Boru Bridge, part of a 6.2km bypass — and the old bridge closed to vehicles. It is now pedestrianised, which is what it probably should have been all along. Both towns feel less pressured and the old bridge is better enjoyed on foot.

Bronze Age burial, Arra Mountains

The Graves of the Leinstermen

High on Tountinna above Ballina, a standing stone marks a Bronze Age cairn said to cover the graves of Leinster warriors defeated in battle here — though the exact battle and the exact date have not survived with the stone. The name is old enough that it appears in medieval annals. The walk up from the R494 takes about two hours and delivers you to the summit at 459 metres with Lough Derg spread below you and the Shannon winding south toward Limerick.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Tountinna and the Graves of the Leinstermen Take the R494 toward Portroe, turn right after 4.5km at the Graves of the Leinstermen sign. Trailhead parking on the roadside. The loop climbs to 459m — the highest point in the Arra Mountains — and the views north over Lough Derg on a clear day are as good as anything in the Midlands.

6 km loopdistance

2–2.5 hourstime

Riverside walk, Ballina to the Brian Boru Bridge Follow the Shannon bank from the town centre to the new bridge and back, or cross over and walk the Killaloe side. Best in the morning before the boat traffic picks up. The old pedestrianised bridge at the far end is worth crossing on foot.

2–3 kmdistance

30–40 mintime

Lough Derg Blueway — cycling the lake circuit Ballina/Killaloe is the southern starting point for the Lough Derg Blueway cycling loop — Clare shoreline north, then down the Tipperary side through Terryglass, Puckane, Dromineer and Portroe back to the start. Do it as a two-day outing with a stop in Mountshannon or Terryglass. Shorter sections work as day rides.

Full circuit is 90+ kmdistance

2 days minimumtime

Lough Derg on the water Canoe, kayak, paddleboard and boat hire available in Ballina for the summer months. The lake is calmer than the coast and the southern basin around the twin towns has sheltered bays. River cruises also run from Killaloe. No experience required for the flat-water sections near shore.

Variabledistance

Half day or full daytime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

The lake is quiet and the Arra Mountains walk is excellent — clear days, long views, no crowds on the trail. Festival season hasn't started yet.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

July brings the Féile Brian Ború festival and the lake fills up with boats. Worth it for the energy, but book accommodation well ahead. The outdoor pool in Ballina's Riverside Park opens in May.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep–Oct

The boats thin out, the water is still warm enough for a late swim, and Goosers gets back to its quieter best. The Arra Mountains are excellent in October light.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Tuscany Bistro is weekend-only anyway and some seasonal places close. The riverside and the cathedral are still there. A weekday in January is very quiet — not unpleasantly so.

◐ 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.

Driving across the old thirteen-arch bridge by car

It closed to vehicles in late 2025 after the new Brian Boru Bridge opened. It is now pedestrians only — which is how it should be used.

Confusing the Lakeside Hotel's address

It appears variously as Ballina, Co. Tipperary and Killaloe, Co. Clare in different directories. Their own website says Killaloe. It sits on the Clare bank. Either way, both towns are a few minutes' walk.

Treating Killaloe as a separate day trip from Ballina

It's across the bridge. The cathedral, the Viking stone, the Romanesque doorway — all Clare-side, all three minutes from Ballina. If you drive there, you have overcomplicated a walk.

Getting there.

By car

Limerick to Ballina is 22km on the R463 along the east bank of the Shannon — allow 30 minutes. Nenagh is 27km north on the R494, about 25 minutes. The N7 Dublin–Limerick motorway has a junction at Birdhill, 8km south of Ballina.

By bus

Bus Éireann services connect Ballina and Killaloe to Limerick and Nenagh. Check current timetables — services are limited and the schedule changes seasonally.

By train

Nearest station is Nenagh (27km north) on the Limerick–Ballybrophy line. Limerick Colbert station is the main hub for onward connections.

By air

Shannon Airport (SNN) is 40km west — about 40 minutes by car. Limerick is the obvious staging post.