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County Galway · Connacht · Áth Cinn

About Headford

Headford is a town in County Galway, 22 km north of Galway city, with 1,235 people at the 2022 census. A lace-making landlord's town by the Black River, with cairns, stone forts and castles all round it and Ross Errilly, the best-kept friary ruin in Ireland, two kilometres away.

Population
1,235 (2022 census)
Where
22 km from Galway, 189 km from Dublin
Position
53.4693° N, 9.1071° W
In Irish
Áth Cinn
On the model
1,493 buildings, 13 streets, 128 places in 29 kinds
Read more
Headford on Wikipedia
The 3D model of Headford with every named place pinned
Headford Road (N6)
Headford Road (N6)
David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
N84, Headford Road
N84, Headford Road
David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Castles of Connacht: Headford, Galway
Castles of Connacht: Headford, Galway
Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Bus stop on Headford Road
Bus stop on Headford Road
David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

  1. Prehistory to the Iron Age
    Cairns and stone forts. The country around the town holds burial cairns, Iron Age stone enclosures, early Norman and later castles and several monastic sites.
  2. 14th or 15th century
    Ross Errilly. The friary two kilometres north-west, one of the best-preserved monastic ruins of its period in Ireland, appeared for a moment in John Ford's The Quiet Man in 1952.
  3. 1775 to 1901
    The St Georges. The St George family owned the town through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a history told in Gerardine Candon's Headford, County Galway, 1775-1901.
  4. 1837
    Samuel Lewis's town. The Topographical Dictionary of 1837 counted 1,441 people and 217 houses in a neat, clean town much improved by its owner, with a constabulary station, petty sessions on Mondays, a dispensary, a Tuesday market and fairs on 11 May and 14 October.
  5. 1859 and 1865
    Two St Mary's. Father Peter Conway built the church at Claran in 1859 and the church in Headford in 1865, on land given by the St Georges; both are dedicated to St Mary.
  6. 2000s
    The lace returns. Headford's Torchon lace tradition, recorded in the national inventory of intangible heritage, is reproduced by modern lacemakers; the Lace Matrix, a sculpture of iron and lace, stood for it, and Tarmo Thorström's Cyclogenesis renewed it in 2024.

The full history, 7 moments in order

What to see

  1. Ross Errilly Friary2.0 km

    The fourteenth- or fifteenth-century friary north-west of the town, among the best-preserved monastic ruins in Ireland.

  2. Killursa Church2.5 km

    The ruined medieval church of St Fursey, 2.6 km west at Ower.

  3. Headford Castle521 m

    The St George house built on the ruins of the old castle, with its demesne and gateway.

  4. Kilcoona round tower5.7 km

    The round tower at the monastic site south of the town.

  5. Greenfields

    The town's boating harbour on Lough Corrib, 6.5 km to the west.

  6. The Black River

    The trout river that is the county boundary with Mayo, beside the town.

All the things to see and do

Questions people ask

Where is Headford?
In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 22 km north of Galway city and 189 km west of Dublin, on the N84 from Galway to Castlebar, with the R333 and R334.
What is the population of Headford?
1,235 people at the 2022 census.
What is there in Headford?
On the map, 128 named places in 29 kinds: 5 places to eat and drink, 5 shops, 4 schools, churches and public buildings, and 104 things to see within 12 km.
What is Headford known for?
Ross Errilly Friary, angling on the Corrib and the Black River, its lace, and being the market town the St Georges improved in the nineteenth century.

Getting around

Headford sits on the N84 from Galway to Castlebar, with the R333 and R334. 3 bus stops and 0 car parks are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Headford" (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.