The Story of Kenmare Fair Day
Updated: Aug 22
Every year, on the 15th of August, something rather extraordinary happens in Kenmare. The streets fill with horses and ponies, traders set out their stalls, old acquaintances meet again and thousands of people descend on the town. For one day, the elegant heritage town we know today becomes something altogether different. This is Kenmare Fair Day, and it has been happening, in one form or another, for more than 250 years.
A tradition dating back to the 1760s
To understand Fair Day, you have to go back to the development of Kenmare itself. The town, known historically as Néidin, was developed during the eighteenth century under William Petty Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne and later 1st Marquis of Lansdowne. It was during this period that Kenmare began to take the distinctive planned form we recognise today, with its streets radiating from the centre of town. Kenmare was surrounded by an enormous rural hinterland stretching towards the Beara Peninsula, the Iveragh Peninsula and the mountains and valleys of south Kerry. For the farming communities living throughout this area, the market town was vitally important, where animals were bought and sold, goods were traded, business was conducted and, perhaps just as importantly, where people met.
The tradition of the August Fair is believed to date to the 1760s
Originally, it was not one fair day but two. The 15th of August was principally for cattle and other livestock, while the 16th was associated with materials, goods and other non-livestock trading. Over time, those two days gradually merged into the great Fair Day that survives today. Kenmare was once a town of many fairs and the 15th of August was by no means Kenmare's only Fair Day. For generations, fairs were a regular feature of life here where farmers brought their animals into town and stood them along the streets while dealers moved between them, inspecting livestock and bargaining over prices. There were no online marts, agricultural websites or livestock trailers heading for purpose built sales rings.
The town itself was the marketplace
Indeed, historical records show just how important fairs and markets were to Kenmare. In 1831, Lord Lansdowne sought the right to hold four fairs each year as well as a daily market on the lands of Nedeen, the old name associated with Kenmare. Fair days continued to be an important part of the economic and social life of the town well into the twentieth century. For anyone who grew up in Kenmare or the surrounding countryside, Fair Day meant something.
Why the 15th of August?
There is another layer to the date itself. The 15th of August is the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, traditionally an important date in the Irish calendar. Here in Kenmare, the day also has a connection with Our Lady's Well at Gortamullen, where generations have visited the holy well and performed the traditional rounds. So the date carried both religious and commercial significance: a holy day, a gathering day and a fair day, and while Kenmare's other traditional fairs gradually disappeared, the 15th of August endured.
When the streets themselves were the mart
Older photographs of Kenmare's Fair Days are wonderful records of a town that many visitors today would scarcely recognise. Cattle, horses and ponies stood along streets now occupied by cafés, restaurants, galleries and shops. People came in from the surrounding countryside to buy and sell and deals were struck on the street. Afterwards, inevitably, people retired to the pubs and hotels of Kenmare to talk about the day's trading. Even as recently as the early 1990s, livestock was still very much part of the streetscape on Fair Day. For many years Kenmare continued to have regular fair days, but the establishment of an auction mart in the early 1990s changed the way livestock was traded. Gradually, the old street fairs disappeared, except for one. The 15th of August survived and perhaps that is what makes Kenmare Fair Day so special today. It’s not a historical re-enactment, it wasn't invented for visitors and it isn't an attempt to recreate what an Irish country fair might once have looked like. It simply never stopped.
Every 15th of August, the tradition begins again
Horses and ponies return to the streets. Traders arrive. Stalls appear throughout the town selling everything imaginable, from tools and household goods to food and clothing. There are characters who have been coming for years, families for whom attending Fair Day is an annual ritual and people who travel considerable distances simply because, well, it is the 15th of August in Kenmare. In recent years it has continued to draw enormous crowds and is regularly described as the busiest day of the year in the town.
Old Kenmare and new Kenmare, side by side
Kenmare has changed enormously since those first fairs of the eighteenth century. Today it is known for its award winning restaurants, independent shops, galleries, beautiful hotels and its position between the Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Beara. With a population of just 2,500 and 55 bars and restaurants, we always come back on the 15th of August and, underneath all of that, you can still glimpse the old market town.
For a few hours, the past and present seem to occupy the same streets. The shops and restaurants are still there. The hotels are full. Visitors take photographs on their phones. And among them are horses, traders, farmers and families continuing a tradition that began more than two and a half centuries ago.
There are not many places where history survives quite like that.
So if you ever find yourself in Kenmare on the 15th of August, don't expect an ordinary day, you are witnessing one of Kenmare's oldest living traditions.
And long may it continue.
For more information visit Kenmare Archives https://kenmarearchive.com/fair-days/
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