The village of Balsas sits halfway between Vila Nova do Ceira and Monteira. At its centre is the large Quinta das Balsas. Built into a wall of one of the farm buildings belonging to the quinta is an ‘alminha’ (little shrine) of considerable age. This type of alminha, capped with a cross, is less common in the Góis region than in regions to the north. In the 1527 census of the area, the village of ‘Bouças’ is listed as having 6 permanent dwellings, which is a considerable number for a village at that time. As there is no longer any village called ‘Bouças’ in the concelho of Góis, it is likely that the name has become corrupted to ‘Balsas’, and that in the past the village grew up around the important quinta.