Village · Co. Mayo
“Ballyveaghan” — the small town on the shore of Clew Bay, north of Westport, where the Black Oak River flows through the centre and the old station building now stands on the Greenway.
Newport (Baile Uí Fhiacháin in Irish), historically known as Ballyveaghan and also as Newport-Pratt, is a small town in the barony of Burrishoole, County Mayo, Ireland. The population was 815 in 2022. It is on the west coast of Ireland, along the shore of Clew Bay, north of Westport, and the N59 road passes through the town. The county town of Castlebar is approximately 18 km east of Newport.
The Black Oak River flows through the centre of the town, and there are walking paths along its banks. The river is the town’s front garden: the water, the banks and the paths, and the walk through Newport is the walk along the river and up to the bay. Clew Bay is on the town’s front door, and the light on the water is best in the evening — the town is the quiet place on the bay shore, between Westport to the south and the Achill country to the north.
There had once been a Newport railway station, on the Westport to Achill line, but it closed in 1937, and today it forms part of the Great Western Greenway. The station building stands on the Greenway route, and the walk along the old line is the walk that passes the building on the way to the coast. The Greenway is the town’s connection: the old line, the path and the coast, and the town is the place where the Greenway meets the bay.
Newport is on the N59 on the shore of Clew Bay, north of Westport and about 18 km west of Castlebar; the Black Oak River is in the town centre. The town works as the base for the bay shore and the Greenway — the river walk in the morning, the bay in the afternoon.
Where to stay
Newport puts the Black Oak, the bay and the Greenway all within a walk — the river is the point.
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The largest island off the west coast, linked to the mainland by a bridge over Achill Sound since 1887 — wild Atlantic headlands, black-pebble bays, a lighthouse with a story, and a landscape that has shaped Irish life for a thousand years.
The 764-metre mountain near Murrisk, traditionally the place where St Patrick fasted — a broad, windswept summit and one of the great walking and pilgrimage places in the country.
“Mouth of the ford” — the town at the mouth of the River Moy near Killala Bay, with the Ox Mountains to the east and the Nephin Mountains to the west, and the Bronze Age Dolmen of the Four Maols behind the station.
“Mouth of the Mullet” — the coastal Gaeltacht town at the isthmus, with the two bays of Blacksod and Broadhaven linked by Carter’s Canal running through the town, and half the population able to speak Irish.