Ould Lammas Fair
traditional annual fair held in Ballycastle in Northern Ireland
The Ould Lammas Fair is a traditional fair held in Ballycastle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, every year on the last Monday and Tuesday of August. It is associated with the Lammas harvest festival.
The fair has been running for nearly 400 years, with records dating back to the 17th century but having origins possibly much older. Traditionally most of the crowds attending the fair would have been traders from throughout Ireland and from Kintyre, Islay, Jura and elsewhere along the Scottish coast. It is widely considered to be the oldest fair in Ireland.
Various goods are traditionally sold at the fair. These include livestock and traditional foods such as yellowman, which is a local variant of honeycomb, and dulse, which is a type of edible seaweed.
A ballad, The Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle O, was written by local shopkeeper and bog oak carver John Henry MacAuley and enhanced the local fame of the fair. MacAuley was also a well known fiddler, but died in 1937 before his song became famous.
History
Origins
Widely considered to be one of the oldest annual fairs in Ireland, The Ould Lammas Fair has been running for over 400 years with records dating back to the 17th century.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ould Lammas Fair” is traditional annual fair held in Ballycastle in Northern Ireland. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ould, Lammas and Fair, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “traditional annual fair held in Ballycastle in Northern Ireland” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7110441. Authority coordinates are 55.201, -6.252. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1937.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ould Lammas Fair”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ould Lammas Fair primary sources, Ould Lammas Fair archive and Ould research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ould Lammas Fair”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ould Lammas Fair” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.