Village · Co. Mayo
“Mouth of the waterfall” — the town on the River Moy between the Nephin and Ox Mountains, with the 86-km Foxford Way around it and the woollen mills that have made its blankets since 1892.
Foxford (Béal Easa in Irish, meaning “mouth of the waterfall”) is a town 16 km south of Ballina in County Mayo, Ireland. It is on the N26 road between Swinford and Ballina and has a railway station served by trains between Manulla Junction and Ballina. The name Foxford comes from the Irish Béal an Easa, meaning “mouth of the waterfall” — the name previously referred to a large fox-shaped rock at a ford by the town, and this may be the same rock as “Cromwell’s Rock”.
Foxford lies on the River Moy, a salmon-fishing river, close to Lough Conn and Lough Cullin and between the Nephin and Ox Mountains. The river is the town’s front garden: the Moy runs through it, the lakes are at its back, and the two mountain ranges stand on either side. The Foxford Way is an 86-km waymarked tourist trail that circles Foxford, taking in the Ox Mountains, bogland, archaeological sites, lakeshores and river banks — the walk that gets done out of the town, and the reason the town is a hillwalking and walking base.
Agnes Morrogh Bernard founded a convent and started a water-powered woollen mill here in 1892, and the Foxford Woollen Mills are known for producing characteristic wool blankets. The mills are the town’s industry and its landmark: the water power, the wool and the blankets, and the walk through the town is the walk that passes the mill on the way to the river.
Foxford is 16 km south of Ballina on the N26, on the River Moy between the Nephin and Ox Mountains; the Foxford Way starts in the town. The town works as the base for the Moy valley, the lakes and the two ranges — the walk in the morning, the river in the afternoon.
Where to stay
Foxford puts the river, the lakes and the two mountain ranges all within a walk — the Foxford Way is the point.
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