The Ould Lammas Fair

The Ould Lammas Fair is widely considered the oldest traditional fair in Ireland. Its roots may go back further still than its 1606 charter: in 1571, Sorley Boy MacDonnell held public games at Dunaneeny Castle to mark his nephew Gillaspick’s coming of age — games often credited as the tradition’s true starting point. It was Sorley Boy’s son, Randall MacDonnell, first Earl of Antrim, who formalised things in 1606 with a charter to hold fairs at Dunaneeny, one of them timed to the last Tuesday in August — a tradition that’s run, in one form or another, for close to 420 years since.

It’s held every year on the last Monday and Tuesday of August, in the streets of Ballycastle by the seafront, with stalls, market traders, and — historically — horse trading, which was a major part of the fair through the 18th and 19th centuries.

What to expect

The fair is best known for two traditional foods: dulse, a dried edible seaweed, and yellowman, a hard, honeycomb-like toffee. Both are sold from stalls throughout the fair and have been for generations — commemorated in the folk song “The Ould Lammas Fair,” which name-checks both (“did you treat your Mary Ann to some dulse and yellow man”) alongside the fair’s real landmarks: the Margy river and the slopes of Knocklayde.

The song was written by John Henry MacAulay, a Ballycastle bog-oak carver, after he returned from fighting in the First World War — it tells of meeting a girl at the fair and their life together afterward, “where the heather honey’s made” on the slopes of Knocklayde. MacAulay carved models and pendants from ancient bog oak, sold alongside Belleek pottery from his shop in the town.

Beyond the traditional stalls, expect rides, games, live music, and street food alongside the market itself — it draws thousands of visitors each year, locals and tourists alike.