A few miles west of Ballybofey, on the main road to Fintown (the R252), is the Glenmore Estate, located at Welchtown. The estate formerly included Glenmore Lodge, a country house that stood on the opposite, southern bank of the River Finn, near Glenmore Bridge. The house was originally built in the Georgian-style in the mid-to-late-18th-century. It was reworked for Sir William Styles in the neo-Tudor-style in the early 20th century. The house was demolished in the 1990s. The private estate is now known for its fishing and hunting.[8]
The town grew rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are no schools or churches in the town of Ballybofey itself, with all these amenities lying either across the bridge in Stranorlar or outside the town limits. This is due to laws during plantation times when certain Catholic buildings were not allowed within a specified range of Protestant towns, in this case Stranorlar, though Stranorlar now has both a Roman Catholic and a Church of Ireland church.
'The Matrimony Tree' sculpture
Events
Ballybofey previously played host to an annual Twin Towns Festival. The last of these took place in August 2007.[9]
The Balor Arts Centre is a 300-seat arts and theatre complex,[10] and Butt Drama Circle is a local amateur drama group.[11]
Isaac Butt (1813–1879) – politician, leader of the Home Rule League, born a short distance away in Glenfin, where the Isaac Butt Memorial Hall stands[21]
^Lee, J. J. (1981). "On the accuracy of the Pre-famine Irish censuses". In Goldstrom, J. M.; Clarkson, L. A. (eds.). Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
^"Joseph Barclay Pentland". newulsterbiography.co.uk. Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
^Reid, Colin W. (2014). "'An Experiment in Constructive Unionism': Isaac Butt, Home Rule and Federalist Political Thought during the 1870s". The English Historical Review. 129 (537): 332–361.
