placenamesBalla
An estate house at Moat and the school’s own historical account record the Lynch Blosse family’s local connections.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Balla · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Balla · English · main form
Place & story
Athavallie House at Moat
Athavallie House dates from 1808 and was built for Sir Robert Lynch Blosse. The architectural inventory suggests that it may reuse the shell of an eighteenth-century house. Lower wings extend behind its two-storey frontage to form a U-shaped plan. A walled garden and farmyard belong to its setting. Despite substantial renovation in 2007, the survey recorded surviving historic fabric, including old glass in some sash windows. The former country house later acquired an educational use. [2]
Joint trustees and separate classrooms
Balla National School traces its foundation to an application made by Father Patrick Nolan on 11 May 1832, supported by Sir Francis Lynch Blosse. The two became trustees, representing Catholic and Church of Ireland interests. The school’s history records its division into boys’ and girls’ rooms in 1842. Rose Kilgarrif taught the girls for an annual salary of £8, while her husband received £15. A replacement school building followed in 1937. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Mayo
- Barony
- Clanmorris
- Coordinates
- 53.80680, -9.11681
- Mapped area
- 22.29 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1817 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Balla. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Athavallie House, Moat, NIAH31309014 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- A Brief History of Balla National School · Balla National School
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.