Photo: Oliver Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0More of the schools around Ballycastle are in DEIS than around Co. Mayo’s towns or Irish towns: 100%
The DEIS programme includes 100% of the schools around Ballycastle, above both Co. Mayo’s towns (18%) and Irish towns (35%). Scoil Naomh Brid is a primary with 67 pupils. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Schools in the town or within 3 km of its outline, Department of Education lists for 2025/26; the Ireland figures cover all schools listed.
Where the school in or near Ballycastle is
Each school where the official list places it, shaded by who runs it and sized by pupils; squares are secondary schools, triangles special schools. The dashed shape is Ballycastle’s outline; schools within 3 km of it count.
Places from the Department of Education’s school lists (its own coordinates for all but a handful); map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Teaching through Irish in and around Ballycastle
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 1 schools in and around Ballycastle teaches every subject through Irish.
Who runs Ballycastle’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Ballycastle’s 1 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Killala (1). 1 of the 1 are in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas (30% across Ireland).
Department of Education school lists: ethos 2025/26, patron 2024/25 (the 2025/26 lists don’t give it). DEIS list 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballycastle
Starting primary school
Children can start primary school once they are four, and must be in school by six. Families apply to each school directly. Every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice; a school with more applicants than places admits on the criteria in its policy. Since the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, a Catholic or other majority-faith primary school can’t put baptised children first; a school of a minority faith still can, to keep its ethos.
Moving to secondary school
Children move to post-primary school at about twelve, after sixth class. Again, families apply to each school, usually a year or more ahead, and an oversubscribed school admits on its published criteria, often brothers and sisters and its feeder primary schools.
Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018; each school’s admission policy and notice are on its own website.
The school in and around Ballycastle
Every school in Ballycastle or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland publishes no school-by-school results, which is why these cards have no letters.
Inspection reports for Ballycastle’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
Inspectors visit every kind of school. Whole-school evaluations look at teaching and learning, leadership and management; subject inspections look at one subject; follow-through inspections check whether earlier advice was taken. Each report is published on gov.ie with the school’s response.
The reports describe what inspectors saw and what the school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the school below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil Naomh BridPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ballycastle
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Ballycastle is St. Patrick's College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Patrick's CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 181 | 7.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Ballycastle beside the 128 other Irish towns of 200 to 300 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballinameen | 223 | 1 | 47 | 0 | 0% | 8.1 km |
| Swanlinbar | 222 | 1 | 57 | 0 | 100% | 8 km |
| Dundrum | 221 | 1 | 147 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Causeway | 220 | 4 | 771 | 0 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| Ballycastle | 220 | 1 | 67 | 0 | 100% | 7.5 km |
| Ballynacarrow | 220 | 1 | 66 | 0 | 0% | 5.4 km |
| Rosegreen | 219 | 1 | 152 | 0 | 0% | 4.3 km |
| Crossakeel | 218 | 2 | 145 | 0 | 0% | 8.9 km |
| Glassan | 218 | 1 | 293 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
Of the other 128 towns, 109 have more pupils at the schools around them than Ballycastle. Within 3 km, 7 of these 129 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ballycastle
Pupils every September at the schools in or within 3 km of the town, each counted at today’s site.
The schools in and around Ballycastle had 69 pupils in 2015/16 and 67 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballycastle
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September each year, 2015/16 to 2025/26 (preliminary), for every school placed in the area today; schools that have since closed or merged count where they stood.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballycastle or within 3 km of its outline, as the Department places it: families here use them. Schools further out are on the map of each school’s own page.
- The kinds of school. Primary schools take children from junior infants to sixth class, about ages 4 to 12. Post-primary schools teach the Junior and Leaving Certificate, about ages 12 to 18: voluntary secondary schools (mostly with a religious patron), ETB schools and community colleges run by an Education and Training Board, and community and comprehensive schools. Special schools teach children with particular needs.
- Teaching through Irish. All-Irish: every subject taught through Irish, in the Gaeltacht or, outside it, a Gaelscoil or Gaelcholáiste. Partly in Irish: an Irish stream (some classes entirely through Irish) or some subjects through Irish. Every other school teaches Irish as a subject.
- DEIS. DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) gives schools serving disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and support; the Department decides which schools are in it.
- Ethos and patron. Most Irish schools are owned by a patron, mostly a church; the patron sets the school’s ethos. Multi-denominational schools (Educate Together, many ETB schools) teach children of every faith and none together.
- No grade. Section 53 of the Education Act 1998 lets the Minister refuse to release information that would allow schools’ exam results to be compared, and no results are published school by school. So Ireland’s schools have no letters and its towns no School Grade; nothing on this page ranks them.
- What isn’t here. What the UK and French pages show from results, these can’t: results charts, results against pupils’ backgrounds and towns ranked by their schools (no published results), and how full each school is (no capacity is published). Every post-primary school teaches to the Leaving Certificate, so there is no sixth-form split to show.
- Inspections. The Inspectorate’s reports are linked from each school’s page. They give no overall grade, so none is shown.
- The year. The 2025/26 lists are the Department’s preliminary release; numbers can change a little in the final lists.
Questions about schools in Ballycastle
How many schools are there in Ballycastle?
In Ballycastle or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school, with 67 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballycastle that teach through Irish?
None in Ballycastle or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Ballycastle?
Not in Ballycastle or within 3 km of it; the nearest is St. Patrick's College, 7.5 km away.
What is the best school in Ballycastle?
We don’t say. Ireland publishes no exam results school by school, and section 53 of the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them; a ranking would rest on guesses. Each school’s page has its own facts and a link to its inspection reports, and visiting the schools you are weighing is still the best guide.
How do I get a place at a school in Ballycastle?
Apply to each school directly: every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice with its dates. If it has more applicants than places, it admits on the criteria in its policy.
Sources: Department of Education, school lists 2025/26 (preliminary) and enrolments since 2015/16, CC BY 4.0 · one school placed with OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).