Outlined — Ballycarbery East

Tradition attributes the building of this castle to one Carbery O'Shea (Chatterton 1839, 285), but it is more firmly associated with the MacCarthys. Some form of residence appears to have stood at Ballycarbery in 1398 when Taghd Mac Carthaigh's death there is recorded in the annals (Ó hInnse 1947, 113), but the existing ruins are later in date and are probably those of 'the castle of Valencyen called Ballycarborow', referred to in a document of 1569 (Cal Car MSS 1569, 389). It is noted as a MacCarthy More castle in 1594 (King 1910, 215). Other sixteenth-century sources indicate that it was occupied by the O’Connells in their capacity as MacCarthy wardens (Fiants Eliz No’s. 488,6469, 6569); one Morgan O’Connell of Ballycarbery, for instance, became High Sheriff of Kerry during Elizabethan times. Possession of the castle passed to Sir Valentine Browne following the death of Daniel MacCarthy More - the Earl of Clancar - in 1596 (Hussey 1916a, 252). It appears to have been slighted by parliament forces in 1651-52, when Valencia Harbour was being fortified (Stalley 1991, 127). The castle is located on a slight eminence on the N shore of the tidal estuary of the River Ferta, just E of Valencia Harbour. Dated by Leask to the fifteenth century (1973, 157), it comprises a fine, ivy-covered tower house surrounded by the remains of a bawn. Much of the S and E walls of both the keep and bawn are destroyed, presumably due to the mid-seventeenth-century slighting, though a portion of the bawn at S was dismantled and removed in the early twentieth century (Cochrane 1910, 57). A pair of early nineteenth-century watercolours of the castle by Daniel Grose depict large masses of faced masonry lying on its S and E sides (PI. XXVIII; Stalley 1991, No. 53); most of these were also removed in the early twentieth century. The castle stands within the remains of a bawn (KE079-034002-) which originally enclosed an area measuring 31.6m N-S by at least 35m E-W. At present only the W wall and the W portion of the N wall remain; the remains of the S wall at W, c. 10m in length, were demolished in the early twentieth century (Cochrane 1910, 57), as was the E sector of the N wall (Lecky 1914, 51). The bawn wall at W rises from a slightly battered base, 1.65m in thickness, to an average height of 4.2m. A gap at N, 1.9m in width, may represent the original entrance into the bawn which was described by Lecky as formerly having 'holed stones to either side on which the gate was pivoted' (1914, 51). Between this gap and the NW corner are two loops, and a series of four others occur in the W wall. These narrow, vertical loops are set in splayed lintelled embrasures, 1.2m in average height. On top of the wall is the remains of an alure, and near the N end of the W wall a short stair descends from this to a mural chamber of trapezoidal plan which is furnished with a cupboard in its N end-wall. The chamber is located above a loop embrasure which was partially blocked to become an internally discharging chute when the chamber was modified and fitted with a garderobe. This modification may be connected with the construction, probably in the eighteenth century, of a large house abutting the exterior of the bawn wall at this point. This house, which was demolished in the early twentieth century, is depicted in both of Grose's water-colours (PI. XXVIII; Stalley 1991, No. 53) and was the residence of the Lauder family (Hussey 1916a, 251). To see a 3D model of this monument visit: https://skfb.ly/onuQN The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1101. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 31 July 2013