Bee-boles in Ballingarry

Situated on a slight rise of ground on flat pasture in undulating countryside with Knockshigowna Hill to the E. Ballingarry House stands 80m to the NNW. 19th century bee boles built onto the SE facing section of the NW wall of Ballingarry Castle (TN008-046001-) and probably contemporaneous with nearby Ballingarry House which appears to have used the interior of the castle as a walled orchard in the 19th century. The curtain wall of Ballingarry Castle is a large square-shaped (TN008-046002-) area constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with a slight base-batter. A segmental-arched gateway located at the N end of the E wall gives access to a gatehouse which protrudes from the face of the bawn wall at its S end and is flush with the bawn wall at N. A late nineteenth-century house was added to the centre of the W wall. Contemporary with this late house is the round-arched gateway at the W end of the N wall and the bee boles at the E end of this wall. The orchard inside the curtain wall of the castle is probably contemporary with the construction of the bee boles. Structure described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) as following; 'Eighteen bee boles in three rows, erected c. 1820, built of squared blocks of limestone with round brick-arched heads to boles. Cut stone eaves and with stringcourses separating rows. Built against interior of north-east section of bawn wall of medieval Ballingarry Castle.' (www.buildingsofireland.ie; NIAH Reg. No. 22400812). The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008