County Galway · Connacht · Béal Átha na Sluaighe

About Ballinasloe

Ballinasloe is a town in County Galway, 55 km east of Galway city, with 6,597 people at the 2022 census. The ford of the crowds on the Suck, a castle, a canal that carried Guinness west, and the oldest horse fair in Europe every October.

Population: 6,597 (2022 census)
Where: 55 km from Galway, 130 km from Dublin
Position: 53.3303° N, 8.2214° W
In Irish: Béal Átha na Sluaighe
On the model: 3,496 buildings, 37 streets, 187 places in 70 kinds
Read more: Ballinasloe on Wikipedia

View of the Main Street, looking north-east.
Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Today we have a magnificent Fair Green in Ballinasloe which if my Irish serves me right translates as "The…
Robert French, no restrictions via Wikimedia Commons

Nave of St. Michael's Church, looking south-east. The painting above the chancel arch depicts the Trinity…
Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

An Eason image of Main Street, Ballinasloe in Co. Galway on a quiet day. Lots of pedestrians about but no…
National Library of Ireland on The Commons, no restrictions via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

Bronze Age
A crossing on the Suck. The town grew at a crossing of the River Suck, the Shannon tributary that divides Galway from Roscommon; the Irish name means the mouth of the ford of the crowds.
Early 1200s
De Burgh's town. Richard Mór de Burgh, who died about 1242, is credited with founding the town early in the thirteenth century.
1828
The Grand Canal arrives. From 1828 until the 1960s Ballinasloe was the western terminus of the Grand Canal, and Guinness used the canal stores here to supply the midlands by barge from Dublin.
1842 to 1851
The workhouse. Opened in 1842 for £9,500 and built for a thousand, the workhouse held 2,487 people at the 1851 census.
1978
Supermac's. The fast-food chain opened its first restaurant in Ballinasloe in 1978; by 2019 it had 116 outlets, three of them in the town.

The full history, 15 moments in order

What to see

The Suck and the marina290 m
The river that made the town, the county boundary, and the public marina that opens it to the Shannon navigation.
St Michael's Square and the Main Street
The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century centre, built in the local limestone; the Garda station and the courthouse of about 1840 show the stone at its best.
The castle wall
The ruined outer wall of the castle on the east bank that guarded the ford from the twelfth century and was enlarged by the O'Kellys.
Clontuskert Abbey5.3 km
A national monument seven kilometres from the town: the cloister and church of the medieval priory are open to all.
The Battle of Aughrim centre7.2 km
In Aughrim village, seven kilometres west, the story of the 1691 battle in which three kings' struggle for Ireland was decided.
Famine Remembrance Park
The memorial park a kilometre from the centre at Cleaghmore, remembering the years when the workhouse held two and a half times the people it was built for.

All the things to see and do

Population since 1821

Source: Wikipedia article 'Ballinasloe', Historical populations template, citing the CSO census.

Questions people ask

Where is Ballinasloe?

In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 55 km east of Galway city and 130 km west of Dublin, on the M6, which has bypassed the town since December 2009.

What is the population of Ballinasloe?

6,597 people at the 2022 census, up from 6,662 in 2016.

What is there in Ballinasloe?

On the map, 187 named places in 70 kinds: 19 places to eat and drink, 24 shops, 10 schools, churches and public buildings, and 80 things to see within 12 km.

What is Ballinasloe famous for?

The October horse fair, reputedly the oldest in Europe and three centuries old in 2022; the Grand Canal terminus that brought Guinness west from 1828; the limestone of its buildings; and Supermac's, which opened its first restaurant here in 1978.

What is the history of Ballinasloe?

A ford on the Suck settled since the Bronze Age, a castle from the twelfth century, a town founded by Richard de Burgh in the early 1200s, the fair from the 1700s, the canal in 1828, the railway in 1851, the asylum and the workhouse, and the bypass of 2009.

Getting around

Ballinasloe sits on the M6, which has bypassed the town since December 2009. 6 bus stops and 2 car parks are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Ballinasloe" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19). Population is the CSO census as listed there. Distances and everything on the model are OpenStreetMap.