Ballydavid is known in Irish as Baile na nGall, ‘town of the foreigners’, and that is the form you will see on the signs. Discover Ireland uses both names for the village. It is a small Irish-speaking fishing village on the north coast of the Dingle Peninsula, in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht, strung along the shore of Smerwick Harbour with Mount Brandon at its back. Irish is the working language here, not a heritage exhibit, which is much of the point of coming.
Set your expectations right: this is a quiet, lived-in Gaeltacht, not a resort. It is a pier, a couple of shoreside pubs and a post office, not a strip of attractions. What you actually come for is what is around it: the coast, the music, and early Christian stone buildings a few minutes up the road.
What is Ballydavid called now?
Both names are in use. Baile na nGall is the Irish name and the one on road signs; Ballydavid is the English form still used by Discover Ireland and on many maps. The 2003 Official Languages Act applies to specified official uses of placenames, so it does not mean the village or the English name has vanished.
The one thing to do: Gallarus Oratory
If you do one thing away from the harbour, make it Gallarus Oratory, about a kilometre off. It is a tiny early Christian church built of dry stone with no mortar, its walls curving inwards to form a roof like an upturned boat, and after more than a thousand years it is still watertight. It was put up around the 7th or 8th century. The Office of Public Works describes access to the monument and a separate, privately run visitor centre, so check which entrance you are using before assuming a charge applies.
A short walk away stands Gallarus Castle, a 15th-century tower house of the Knight of Kerry, from the Geraldine dynasty.
For more in the same vein, Kilmalkedar, a little north, is a roofless 12th-century Romanesque church with a sundial, a tall stone cross, an alphabet stone carrying both Latin and ogham, and an ogham pillar reading Anm Maile Inbir Maci Brocann. It pairs naturally with Gallarus on the same loop.
Walking and the headland
The land here is flat and the lanes are quiet, which makes it good cycling and easy walking country, and the early Christian sites are close enough to string together on a bike.
There is no confirmed waymarked route up Ballydavid Head, so do not assume you can simply walk up; stay on public roads and rights of way and keep off private land. Smerwick Harbour itself is the gentler option: a sheltered shore for an unhurried look when the wind is up, which on this coast is often.
Music, the harbour and the regatta
The social centre is Tigh T.P.’s, a pub with benches looking out over the harbour. Check its opening times and music listings before planning an evening around it. The shoreside pubs serve food, and with the Atlantic on the doorstep the seafood is the thing to order. The pier hosts a summer regatta built around races of naomhóga, the traditional tarred-canvas rowing boats of the west coast, but check the current dates locally.
The pier is a working harbour, so leave room for boats and vehicles.
One modern landmark you cannot miss is the RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta studio and transmission mast just outside the village, which broadcasts Irish-language radio to the country.
Practical information
- By road: Ballydavid sits on the R559, the road that loops the western tip of the peninsula back to Dingle.
- Bus: TFI Local Link route 268 links Dingle with Baile na nGall, Gallarus and other villages on the peninsula. Check the operator’s current timetable for the last bus back.
- Amenities: Shops, supermarkets and a pharmacy are in Dingle town. Much of the accommodation is self-catering holiday homes and cottages, so book ahead for the summer.
Do not try to schedule the place. Walk the pier, call into T.P.’s over the harbour, and detour to Gallarus on the way out. That is a full, good day in Baile na nGall.