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arts · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
Yeats Revisited at the Ballinglen Museum of Art
At Ballinglen Museum of Art · Main Street, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, F26 X5N3
At Ballinglen Museum of Art · Main Street, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, F26 X5N3
The Ballinglen Museum of Art in Ballycastle has built its autumn show around Jack B Yeats and the pull that north Mayo exerted on him. Yeats travelled through this corner of the county, and the exhibition sets that connection against the wider Ballinglen holdings, the collection that has grown out of nearly four decades of artists coming to Ballycastle on fellowship. The result is a show that reads the coastline through one of the best known painters in Irish art and through the many artists who have followed him to the same cliffs, bog and light.
Ballinglen is not a large institution and that is part of its appeal. The museum sits on Main Street in a village of a few hundred people, ten minutes from the Céide Fields and the Downpatrick Head sea stack, and it shows serious work in rooms you can cross in a few paces. The Ballinglen Arts Foundation has been bringing Irish and international artists to north Mayo since 1992, housing them, giving them studio time and building a permanent collection from the work they make here. Coming to see the Yeats show also means seeing what that long residency programme has produced. Allow an hour, more if the weather outside is doing what north Mayo weather usually does.
Ballycastle is on the R314 on the north Mayo coast, about 30km from Ballina by way of Killala, a drive of roughly 35 minutes. From Belmullet the same R314 runs east through Bangor Erris and Ballycastle in about an hour. Coming from Castlebar, take the N58 to Ballina first. There is no rail service to the village, so the nearest station is Ballina, on the Dublin Heuston line via Manulla Junction. Main Street has free on-street parking and the museum is in the middle of the village terrace, a short walk from the shops and pubs. Combine the visit with Downpatrick Head or the Céide Fields, both a short drive west.
Heading to Ballinglen Museum of Art in Ballycastle? Mayo has plenty more to see. Read the Ballycastle area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.