Ballyglass is a village in central County Mayo between Mayo Abbey and Carnacon. It once had a stagecoach stop, a fair and a courthouse. Local history also records a hotel built in anticipation of a railway station. When the railway went elsewhere, the building became the Garda barracks.
The Neolithic timber house found in an excavation is at a different Ballyglass, near Ballycastle, not at this central Mayo village.
The village
Ballyglass (An Baile Glas, ‘the green village’) lies on a fertile farming strip between the parishes of Mayo Abbey and Carnacon, roughly 10 miles (16km) from Castlebar and much the same from Claremorris and Ballinrobe. Farming is still the mainstay. The Mayo.ie village page and its history page are the places to check for local information before you go.
Old buildings and local lore
Ballyglass’s buildings map its history as a stopping place. In the 19th century it was a stage on the coach routes that ran before the railways. The former Garda barracks was built, optimistically, as a hotel to serve a Claremorris–Westport railway station that never came; when the line went elsewhere it became a police station instead. The old courthouse stood in the village.
Local memory holds that the village fair once moved to nearby Donamona after a fatal dispute, a reminder that historic Irish market days could be rougher than the word ‘fair’ suggests.
A woodland walk nearby
For a public outing in the area, follow Coillte’s visitor information for Moore Hall near Carnacon. The woodland looks out onto Lough Carra. Use the signed entrance and follow the forest paths for views across the water.
Nearby
- Moore Hall – The ruins of an 18th-century house on the shore of Lough Carra, home of the Moore family (including the writer George Moore), burned in the Civil War in 1923. See the Coillte link above for the public woodland walks. (Carnacon)
- Lough Carra – A clear marl lake, pale green in the right light, with wild brown trout and plenty of birdlife.
- Mayo Abbey – East of Ballyglass, with the remains of a monastery traditionally founded by Saint Colman in the 7th century.
Practical notes
You will need a car. Ballyglass is reached by regional roads linking Castlebar, Claremorris and Ballinrobe, and Castlebar is the nearest railway station. Use the TFI journey planner for current bus and rail connections, and check locally for shops, pubs and parking before you rely on them.
The village is a quiet farming parish with a good deal of local history. Treat it as a short stop on a day around Lough Carra and Mayo Abbey.