Ballyheigue ( ), officially Ballyheige (), is a coastal town and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

, Ireland. It is northwest of

Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...

along the R551 road. It is a scenic locale which forms part of the

Wild Atlantic Way The Wild Atlantic Way () is a Scenic route, tourism trail on the west coast, and on parts of the north and south coasts, of Ireland. The 2,500 km (1,553 mile) driving route passes through nine Counties of Ireland, counties and three Provinces ...

and has several miles of beaches that connect to

Banna Strand Banna Strand (Irish language, Gaeilge: Trá na Beannaí), also known as Banna Beach, is a beach in North Kerry, Ireland. It is an Atlantic Ocean beach extending from the Smallrock (Roc Beag) and Blackrock in the North to Carrahane at its south ...

to the south, and Kerry Head to the north. Local events include the "Half on the Head" (Kerryhead)

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

in June and an annual summer festival in July. Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes multiple

ringfort Ringforts or ring forts are small circular fortification, fortified settlements built during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000 AD. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are ...

souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ', meaning "subterrain", is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northwards from Gaul d ...

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...

Bullaun stone A bullaun (; from a word cognate with "bowl" and French ''bol'') is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often water filled. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may sit in the bullaun. The size of the bullaun is highly variable ...

and

fulacht fiadh A burnt mound is an archaeological feature consisting of a mound of shattered stones and charcoal, normally with an adjacent hearth and trough. The trough could be rock-cut, wood-lined or clay-lined to ensure it was watertight. Radiocarbon ...

sites in Ballyheige, Buncurrig, Dirtane and other surrounding

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

s. Ballyheigue Castle, a ruined Tudor Gothic Revival style country house, was built in 1809 on the site of an earlier house. The local

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

(GAA) club is Ballyheigue GAA.

Notable people

Richard Cantillon Richard Cantillon (; 1680s – ) was an Irish-French economist and author of '' Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général'' (''Essay on the Nature of Trade in General''), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of ...

, economic theorist and coiner of the term ''

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

''. * Don O'Neill, fashion designer.

. *''New Light on The Golden Lion and the Danish Silver Robbery at Ballyheigue'', by B. Mac Mahon, published in the Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society. ''Vol: 24 pp:113-149'', 1991. Abstract: This article examines the robbery in 1731 of six chests of silver, part of the cargo of the 'Golden Lion' which was driven ashore at Ballyheigue during the previous year. *''The Lively Ghosts of Ireland'', by Hans Holzer, Wolfe Publishing Ltd., London, 1967, 1968, reprinted 1970. See Chapter on Ballyheigue, page 32, recalling earlier article in 1962 by Patrick Denis O'Donnell in ''Ireland of the Welcomes''.

References

External links

Ballyheigue Website

Ballyheigue Info Page
{{County Kerry Towns and villages in County Kerry Civil parishes of County Kerry Beaches of County Kerry

Notable people

See also

Further reading

References

External links