County Kildare Towns and Villages
Ballitore
Ballitore is 28 miles from Dublin and just off the
N9 from Dublin to Kilkenny.
Ballitore has been associated with The Society of
Friends since the end of the seventeenth century and it still retains
a spirit of simplicity and modesty consistent with Quaker values .
For mote information about the Quakers visit:
Local History
Ballitore is a charming village founded by the Quakers
in the 1700's. Due to the writings of Mary Leadbeater and
her correspondence with such people as Mary Edgeworth and
Edmund Burke, Ballitore is widely known. Ballitore takes
its name from the Gaelic 'Baíle' meaning a town,
and 'Togher' meaning a marsh. The Quakers from Yorkshire
who founded Ballitore, transformed the valley into rich fertile
farmlands, and developed the town as a Quaker Settlement.
In fact, Ballitore is the only planned and permanent Quaker
Settlement in Ireland. Ballitore is the home to several historical
buildings. The Meeting House was built around 1708. It is
the home of Mary Shackleton Leadbeater that is, today, being
restored. A daughter of the master of the Ballitore School,
Mary demonstrated an early ability for creative writing and
in 1791 married William Leadbeater, former pupil and teacher
at the school.
Through Mary Leadbeater's Annals of Ballitore a very important historical legacy
was left to the people of Ballitore. Within these writings, she describes the
events and characters of the Ballitore of her lifetime. Today, a small museum,
numerous buildings and the old village cemetery reflect the Quaker Tradition.
Things To Do
Ballitore Quaker Museum
In 1975 the meeting house of the Society of Friends (Quakers) which had fallen
into ruin was restored by Kildare County Council as its contribution to the European
Architectural Heritage Year, and it has served as the library for the Ballitore
area since then. The museum, which is incorporated into the library, contains
a selection of artefacts and memorabilia of a mainly local nature. Items of a
Quaker interest also feature and include a wedding dress and bonnet, worn by
Marian Richardson (nee Wakefield) at Ballitore in 1853. In the entrance hall
are the door and lintel stone from the original Shackleton home at Harden in
Yorkshire which was built in 1660. Also in the entrance hall is a ledger dated
1807- 1810 for the Shackleton Mills at Lucan. Amongst the Ballitore manuscripts
on display are Shackleton letters and notebooks which contain water colours by
Mary Shackleton and the Ballitore Magazine for July 1809.
Shaker Store
The Shaker
Store has on permanent show the largest selection of Shaker
Furniture in Ireland. Visitors can see the beauty and simplicity
of Shaker design at its best. A trip to the showrooms will
be a memorable and enjoyable occasion
Mullaghmast Rath
This is an Iron Age ringfort, situated between Ballitore and Burtown crossroads.
In 1577, a massacre of the seven septs of Laois took place, when they were
invited to Mullaghmast by the English army for peace talks. As the Irish
arrived, they were systematically murdered. They were surrounded by four
lines of cavalry and were driven into the Rath where they were massacred.
That was four hundred years ago and today the bloodholes are only a dimple
in the ground, but at the time of the massacre they were 20 feet deep. All
those who were killed were remembered at a special ceremony on the 6th of
October 1991.
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