Photo: Munifico · CC BY-SA 3.0Most secondary schools around Castlebar teach boys and girls apart: 2 of 3
Of the post-primaries around Castlebar, 67% are single-sex, above both Co. Mayo’s towns (0%) and Irish towns (39%). 4,272 pupils go to the 7 primary schools, 3 secondary schools and 2 special schools in or within 3 km of Castlebar. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
What stands out about Castlebar’s schools
Mostly single-sex at secondary
Most secondary schools here take only boys or only girls; the mixed ones are marked on the cards below. Single-sex: St. Geralds College (688) and St Joseph's Secondary School (542). Every school ↓
One school growing fast
Davitt College has grown from 710 pupils in 2019/20 to 902, the fastest of the schools here. Getting a place ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
The 12 schools in and around Castlebar
Here are the schools in Castlebar or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
Where the 12 schools in and around Castlebar are
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 Castlebar’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 Castlebar
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
1 of Castlebar’s 12 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil Raifteirí.
Who Castlebar’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Mayo’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
DEIS by stage: pupils at DEIS schools
| Share of pupils | Around Castlebar | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 30% | 37% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 5% | 5% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 48% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 58% | 26% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
DEIS schools teach 30% of the pupils around Castlebar, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Mayo: 37%). Where this area differs most from Ireland is post-primary pupils at single-sex schools, at 58% against 29%. Davitt College, with 902 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 12 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davitt CollegePost-primary · ETB | 902 | 57% | ✓ | |
| Castlebar Primary SchoolPrimary | 864 | 44% | ||
| St. Geralds CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 688 | 0% | ||
| St Joseph's Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 542 | 100% | ||
| Gaelscoil RaifteiríPrimary | 229 | 53% | ✓ | |
| Castlebar Educate Together National SchoolPrimary | 113 | 49% | ||
| St Anthonys Special ScSpecial | 69 | 41% | ||
| St Brids Special SchSpecial | 40 | 23% | ||
| St Peters N.S.Primary | 271 | 50% | ||
| Breaffy N.S.Primary | 377 | 50% | ✓ | |
| St Josephs N.S.Primary | 111 | 46% | ||
| S.N. B CurnanoolPrimary | 66 | 47% |
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary): enrolments by sex and the DEIS list. Shares are of pupils, not of schools; a county’s are the schools listed with its towns.
Who runs Castlebar’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
10 of Castlebar’s 12 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Tuam (6), Western Care Association (2) and Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim ETB (1). 2 of the 12 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.
The 6 patrons of Castlebar’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Archbishop of Tuam is patron of 6 of the 12 schools around Castlebar, which teach 45% of their pupils; 6 patrons run them in all. An Education and Training Board runs one of them. Educate Together runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of TuamCastlebar Primary School, Breaffy, St Peters, Gaelscoil Raifteirí, St Josephs, S.N. B Curnanool | Catholic | 6 | 1,918 |
| Western Care AssociationSt Anthonys Special Sc, St Brids Special Sch | Catholic | 2 | 109 |
| Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim ETBDavitt College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 902 |
| Le Chéile Schools TrustSt. Geralds College | Catholic | 1 | 688 |
| CEISTSt Joseph's | Catholic | 1 | 542 |
| Educate TogetherCastlebar Educate Together | Multi-denominational | 1 | 113 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Castlebar
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.
Which schools are growing
Since 2019/20, 5 of these 9 schools have grown by 5% or more and 3 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of pupils changed by +5%.
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September, 2019/20 and 2025/26 (preliminary). No capacity is published, so how full a school is can’t be shown.
Inspection reports for Castlebar’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 12 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Davitt CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Castlebar Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St. Geralds CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Joseph's Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil RaifteiríPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Castlebar Educate Together National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Anthonys Special ScSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Brids Special SchSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Peters N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Breaffy N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Josephs N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. B CurnanoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Castlebar
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Within 10 km of Castlebar there are 3 post-primary schools: 2 voluntary secondary schools and one ETB school. Of these, 2 are single-sex: 1 for girls and 1 for boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Joseph's Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 542 | 0.3 km |
| Davitt CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 902 | 0.3 km |
| St. Geralds CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 688 | 0.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Castlebar
2 special schools serve the area: St Anthonys Special Sc and St Brids Special Sch, 109 pupils between them. 3 of the 7 primary schools have special classes for children who need more support. Their cards ↑
Special schools and primary schools with special classes as the Department lists them; the National Council for Special Education places pupils in special classes.
Castlebar beside the 82 other Irish towns of 9,100 to 17,600 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rathfarnham | 17,508 | 111 | 39,391 | 10 | 22% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Mallow | 13,456 | 11 | 4,357 | 1 | 18% | 0.6 km |
| Arklow | 13,399 | 9 | 3,343 | 2 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Ongar | 13,390 | 42 | 22,425 | 3 | 21% | 0.3 km |
| Sallynoggin | 13,245 | 51 | 15,036 | 2 | 24% | 0.6 km |
| Castlebar | 13,054 | 12 | 4,272 | 1 | 17% | 0.3 km |
| Fettercairn | 12,970 | 72 | 25,995 | 8 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Wicklow | 12,957 | 11 | 4,543 | 1 | 36% | 0.6 km |
| Hollystown | 12,884 | 68 | 22,939 | 3 | 50% | 1.9 km |
| Blackrock | 12,816 | 66 | 25,764 | 6 | 11% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Portarlington | 9,288 | 5 | 2,657 | 0 | 0% | 1.3 km |
Of these 82 other towns, 66 count more pupils at their schools than Castlebar. 82 of the 83 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Castlebar
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 Castlebar had 3,979 pupils in 2015/16 and 4,272 in 2025/26. St Brids Special Sch grew most: +90% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Castlebar
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.
Schools in the towns around Castlebar
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
The roll around Castlebar moved +9% since 2019/20; nearby, Westport grew most (+6%) and Foxford least (+6%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Castlebar 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 Castlebar
How many schools are there in Castlebar?
In Castlebar or within 3 km of it: 7 primary schools, 3 secondary schools and 2 special schools, with 4,272 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Castlebar that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil Raifteirí teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Castlebar?
No: all 3 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Castlebar?
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 Castlebar?
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).