Ballyduff's history includes a remarkable All-Ireland hurling victory. Nearby Rattoo preserves Kerry's only complete round tower, with unusual carving high inside its stonework.
⊕Recorded locationBallyduff52.45381° N · 9.65742° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
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
An Baile Dubh· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballyduff· English · main form
Place & story
Benmore on the road to the ferry
Samuel Lewis recorded the village under both Benmore and Ballyduff in 1837. Its seventy-one houses, mostly thatched, formed a single street on the road from Tralee towards Ballybunion by the Cashen ferry. He counted 448 inhabitants, with a Catholic chapel in the centre, a police station and regular petty sessions. Four annual fairs supplied further occasions for people from the surrounding countryside to gather in the village.[2]
Rattoo's complete round tower
Just outside Ballyduff, Rattoo preserves the only surviving complete round tower in Kerry. Its carefully dressed sandstone rises to about twenty-nine metres. The entrance stands some 2.8 metres above ground level and was originally reached by a ladder. Spirals decorate the round-headed doorway, while four windows face the principal compass directions near the top. Inside, projecting corbels supported the floors. The tower belongs to a larger ecclesiastical landscape that includes church remains and a burial ground.[3]
A carving discovered during repairs
Repair work in 1880–81 revealed a sheela-na-gig carved on the inner frame of Rattoo tower's northern window. A plaster cast is held by the National Museum of Ireland. The figure's position within the tower makes it an especially unusual architectural detail. It is also a reminder that conservation work can disclose features easily missed from the ground: much of the tower's visual interest lies above ordinary viewing height.[3]
Ballyduff represents Kerry
Ballyduff won the Kerry senior hurling championship in 1891, defeating Kilmoyley. In the early championship system the club then represented its county. Its Munster campaign included a disputed defeat to Limerick's Treaty Stones, followed by a successful appeal and victory in a replay. Ballyduff went on to beat Wexford's Crossabeg in the All-Ireland final at Clonturk Park in Dublin. Although remembered as the 1891 championship, the final took place on 28 February 1892. The victory remains a central event in the club's own historical record.[4][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
Ballyduff — 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
Ballyduff, Kerry — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 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
Ballyduff, Kerry — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Ballyduff, Kerry — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ballyduff, Kerry
Published census settlement populations
517people · 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