Ballinskelligs

Ballinskelligs
Baile an Sceilg
Village
Ballinskelligs is located in Ireland
Ballinskelligs
Ballinskelligs
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 51°49′33″N 10°16′20″W / 51.825885°N 10.272217°W / 51.825885; -10.272217
CountryIreland
ProvinceMunster
CountyCounty Kerry
Population
 (2011)
 • Total375 (Electoral District)[1]
Irish Grid ReferenceV429657
Websitehttp://www.visitballinskelligs.ie
Official name: Baile an Sceilg

Ballinskelligs, officially Baile an Sceilg (Irish for "town (townland) of the craggy rock"),[2][3] is a townland in the civil parish of Prior, County Kerry, Ireland. It may also refer to the wider district around the townland.[4] It is located in the south-west of the Iveragh peninsula (Uíbh Ráthach) and is within the Gaeltacht. According to the 2016 census about 10% of the population of the electoral division speak Irish on a daily basis outside the education system.[5] The townland was in the Poor law union of Cahersiveen.

The rocks referred to in the area’s Irish name are the Skellig IslandsSkellig Michael and Little Skellig—an ancient monastic colony which lies off the coast from Ballinskelligs. The town is also the site of a beach.[6]

Ballinskelligs was the termination site of an early transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1875 from Tor Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada—a distance of 2,565 nautical miles (4,750 km).[7]

  1. ^ "Table 10: Population in each county, city, rural area and electoral division within the Gaeltacht, 2006 and 2011" (PDF). Census 2011. Central Statistics Office. p. 130.
  2. ^ Placenames Database of Ireland
  3. ^ Deidre Flanagan et al.: Irish Place Names, Gill & Macmillan, 1994, ISBN 0-7171-2066-X, p. 172
  4. ^ "Ballinskelligs - Where is Ballinskelligs?". Visit Ballinskelligs. Retrieved 23 August 2019. ...what often confuses first time visitors is that Ballinskelligs isn't a town or a village, it's an area made up of small villages...
  5. ^ "ArcGIS Web Application". census.cso.ie. Archived from the original on 28 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  6. ^ Lord Killanin and Michael V. Duignan: The Shell Guide to Ireland, Ebury Press, London 1967, p. 86
  7. ^ Glover, Bill. "Direct United States Cable Company Cable Station ~ Rye Beach, New Hampshire". History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications. Atlantic Cable.