Ballinalack developed beside an Inny crossing on the Mullingar–Longford road. Its former constabulary barracks and eighteenth-century house preserve different strands of the village’s built history.
⊕Recorded locationBallinalack53.62801° N · 7.47008° 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
Béal Átha na Leac· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballinalack· English · main form
Place & story
A village beside the Inny
Samuel Lewis described Ballinalack in 1837 as a village of fifty-one houses and 334 inhabitants on the road from Mullingar to Longford. Its five-arched bridge crossed the River Inny. The village also contained a principal constabulary station and a parish school supported by J. Gibbons. His account places the river crossing, policing and education together within the life of the settlement before the Famine.[2]
The former constabulary barracks
The building catalogued as Ballinalack School began as a constabulary barracks around 1830. Its two-storey central gable is flanked by lower wings, giving the small building an unusually formal appearance. Carefully cut limestone frames the entrance, where brackets support a projecting stone canopy. Limestone also appears in the chimneys and roof edges. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage suggests that its elaborate detailing may indicate an additional courthouse function, though this remains an interpretation rather than a documented use.[3]
Ballinalack House
Ballinalack House has the appearance of a substantial eighteenth-century residence, with a high basement and a central entrance reached by steps. A fanlight and narrow side windows frame the doorway, bringing light into the entrance behind its limestone surround. The house was largely rebuilt after a fire in 1974 and underwent further alterations around 2000. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records its survival as an imposing element of the village despite the loss of much early detail.[4]
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
Ballinalack — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ballinalack, Westmeath
Published census settlement populations
137people · 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