These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Baile Uí Dhálaigh· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballygawley· English · main form
Place & story
The nearby Castle Dargan estate
The Ormsbys held Castle Dargan from the late seventeenth century. In 1749 William Ormsby appeared in the Census of Elphin as a gentleman farmer. Later estate records show substantial financial change: lands were offered for sale in 1854 and 1855, and more than 1,900 acres came before the Landed Estates Court in 1875. William Middleton bought most of the lots. By 1906 John Hosie was recorded as occupier of the mansion and property. These records trace an important neighbouring estate's passage between families.[2]
Ballygawley Lake and Union Wood
Union Wood lies near Ballygawley Lake and was formerly part of the Cooper estate. Its paths include old oak woodland, with views from Union Rock across Ballisodare and towards Knocknarea and the Ox Mountains. The lake provides a separate focus in this wooded landscape. Coillte's account identifies red squirrels, pine martens, deer and several bird species among the animals found around the forest and water.[3]
Folklore & tradition
The woman seeking deep water
In The Celtic Twilight, in a passage dated 1893, Yeats recorded the story of Clooth-na-bare, a supernatural woman weary of her long existence. She travelled between hills and lakes seeking water deep enough to end it, leaving stone cairns where she landed. At last she found a small mountain lake called Lough Ia. The modern Yeats Trail identifies that lake with Lough Dá Gé in the Ballygawley Hills. The story belongs to those surrounding hills, rather than to the village lake.[4][5]
A swan-shaped inkwell
The Yeats Trail's installation near Ballygawley Lake is by sculptor Martha Quinn. Carved from Kilkenny limestone, the inkwell depicts two swans on water. Quinn explained her choice through the birds' presence on the lake, their place in Yeats's poetry and the use of feathers as writing quills. The work gives the area's literary association a modern physical form. Yeats also visited his Ormsby and Middleton relations at nearby Castle Dargan.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Ballygawley — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Ballygawley, Sligo — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ballygawley, Sligo
Published census settlement populations
310people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames