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BALLYDUFF

CO. WATERFORD · IE

Ballyduff
An Baile Dubh

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 04 / 06

An Baile Dubh · Co. Waterford

Three pubs, one shop, a distillery, and the Blackwater doing the heavy lifting.

Ballyduff Upper — to give it its proper name, since there are two more in Kerry and Wexford that get confused with it — is a small village on the north bank of the Munster Blackwater, ten kilometres west of Lismore and seventeen east of Fermoy. The Cork border is a few fields away. Population is somewhere around 270, the kind of place where the shop, the post office and the parish hall do most of the work and the rest happens on the bridge.

The river is the reason most outsiders know it. The Munster Blackwater is one of the great salmon rivers of Ireland, and the Ballyduff Bridge beat — almost a mile of fly water above and below the bridge — has been pulling rods in since the railway brought them in the 1870s. The season opens on the first of February in a coat and gloves and shuts on the last day of September. Springers, May fish, grilse, and the late-summer back-end run. The lodges and beats below the village (Blackwater Lodge, Blackwater Trout & Salmon Fishery, Carrigane) carry on a Victorian trade that never quite went away.

The other thing to know is the hurling. Ballyduff Upper GAA was founded in 1886 — old, even by GAA standards — and the club has won the Waterford senior hurling championship three times, in 1982, 1987 and 2007. The 2007 win, over Ballygunner in the final, was the first west Waterford county title since 1993. They're known locally as The Village. Red and white. There are a small number of families and most of them have a hurley somewhere by the back door.

Population

~270

Pubs

3and counting

Walk score

End to end in five minutes

Founded

Castle built 1627; bridge late 19th c.

Coords

52.1372° N, 8.0500° W

01 / 05

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 river

Salmon water, February to September.

The Munster Blackwater runs the village. Season opens 1 February and shuts 30 September. Springers, grilse, the odd back-end fish. Rods know it as Ballyduff Bridge beat.

Stories & lore → 02 The hurling

The Village. Red and white.

Ballyduff Upper GAA, founded 1886. County senior hurling titles in 1982, 1987 and 2007 — the first west Waterford side to win it since 1993. A small parish that punches.

Stories & lore → 03 The setting

10km west of Lismore, 17km east of Fermoy.

Sit on the bridge and you can see Cork from the south bank. The Waterford–Mallow railway used to stop here until 1967. Now it's the road, the river, and time enough.

Getting there →

02 / 05

The pubs.

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

The Síbín

Local, talkative

Village pub

Main Street pub, rendered shopfront listed in the village architectural conservation area. The kind of place where a pint takes ten minutes because someone wants to ask where you're from.

The Log Cabin

Steady local

Village pub

One of the village's three. Listed in pub directories, in operation. Quiet most weeknights; livelier when there's a match on or after a drama festival session.

Tobin's

Old-school

Village pub

Family name on the door, family name in the place — the Tobins of Ballyduff have been written about in their own right. A village pub of the older kind. Don't expect food.

03 / 05

Stories & lore.

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

1 February to 30 September

The salmon season

The Munster Blackwater opens for salmon and sea trout on the first of February — coat, hat, gloves, a flask of something — and shuts at the end of September. The Ballyduff Bridge beat is fly water, almost a mile of it, with named pools that anglers have been arguing about for a hundred years. Spring fish in February and March, grilse from June, back-end fish into September. Blackwater Lodge below the village has run the trade longest; the Blackwater Trout & Salmon Fishery on Station Road is the smaller, friendlier neighbour. Catch-and-release is the rule for spring fish.

Ballyduff Upper GAA, founded 1886

The Village

Ballyduff Upper GAA is one of the oldest clubs in Waterford. Three Waterford senior hurling championships — 1982, 1987 and 2007 — for a parish you can walk across in five minutes. The 2007 final, beating Ballygunner 1–18 to 1–14, was the first county title for a west Waterford club since 1993 and the village had not gone quietly to bed for a week. Mossie Walsh was an All-Star in 1980; Stephen Molumphy in 2007. The club nickname is The Village. The colours are red and white. The pitch is up the road, and on a Sunday in summer that's where the village is.

Now Blackwater Distillery

The 1950s hardware store

The big building near the bridge was a hardware store opened in 1952 — the kind of country merchant that sold you a hen, a bag of nails and a Wellington in the same visit. It closed eventually, sat quiet, and in the 2010s was taken over by Peter Mulryan and turned into Blackwater Distillery. They do gin (the No. 5 is the one you'll see in bars), vodka and pot-still whiskey, and they run a tour of the working stillhouse with a tasting at the end. The bones of the old shop are still in the walls. It is, by some way, the busiest building in the village.

04 / 05

Things to do outside.

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

The bridge and the riverbank The late-19th-century Ballyduff Bridge is the village's centrepiece. Walk out onto it, look upstream, look down. The path along the north bank toward the fishery beats is informal — angler's track, not a waymarked trail — but you can wander a bit before the fields take over.

1–2 kmdistance

20–40 mintime

Mocollop Glen Signposted from the village by Visit Waterford. A quiet glen walk by Mocollop, where the ruined church sits in its old graveyard. Sometime around 1180 a church was built here; it stayed in use until the 1960s and then the roof came off. The Drew family memorials were moved to Lismore Cathedral. It's a strange, settled spot.

Short loopdistance

1 hourtime

Out to Lismore by road The R666 runs along the north side of the Blackwater all the way to Lismore. Quiet road, glimpses of the river through gaps in the hedge. A fair cycle if the day is right. Walk it if you have time.

10 km one waydistance

By bike, an hourtime

Getting there.

By car

Lismore is 10km east on the R666 — about 12 minutes. Fermoy is 17km west across the Cork border, 20 minutes on the N72. Dungarvan is 35km, Waterford city about an hour.

By bus

Local Link Waterford runs services through west Waterford that include Ballyduff. Times are sparse — check the Local Link Waterford schedule before relying on it. The nearest regular bus routes are at Lismore and Fermoy.

By train

No station — the Waterford–Mallow line stopped at Ballyduff from 1872 to 1967, and the railway closed. Mallow (40km) and Limerick Junction are the nearest working stations.

By air

Cork (ORK) is about an hour by car. Shannon and Kerry are both around two.