Ballinskelligs
Ballinskelligs
Baile an Sceilg | |
|---|---|
Village | |
| Coordinates: 51°49′33″N 10°16′20″W / 51.825885°N 10.272217°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Kerry |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 375 (Electoral District) |
| Irish Grid Reference | V429657 |
| Website | http://www.visitballinskelligs.ie |
| Official name: Baile an Sceilg | |
Ballinskelligs, officially Baile an Sceilg (Irish for "town (townland) of the craggy rock"), is a townland in the civil parish of Prior, County Kerry, Ireland. It may also refer to the wider district around the townland. It is located in the south-west of the Iveragh peninsula (Uíbh Ráthach) and is within the Gaeltacht. According to the 2016 census about 10% of the population of the electoral division speak Irish on a daily basis outside the education system. The townland was in the poor law union of Cahersiveen.
The rocks referred to in the area’s Irish name are the Skellig Islands—Skellig Michael and Little Skellig—an ancient monastic colony which lies off the coast from Ballinskelligs. The town is also the site of a beach.
Ballinskelligs was the termination site of an early transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1875 from Tor Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada—a distance of 2,565 nautical miles (4,750 km).