Ballyheigue Castle, in

Ballyheigue Ballyheigue ( ), officially Ballyheige (), is a coastal town and civil parish in County Kerry, Ireland. It is northwest of Tralee along the R551 road. It is a scenic locale which forms part of the Wild Atlantic Way and has several miles of bea ...

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 ...

, is a ruined Tudor-gothic-revival-style mansion. It was used as a residence of the Crosbie family (including the

Bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe The Bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe (usually simply referred to as the Bishop of Ardfert) was an episcopal title which took its name after the village of Ardfert and townland of Aghadoe, both in County Kerry, Ireland. History The diocese of Rá ...

High Sheriffs of Kerry High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

and members of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

) and later as a gaol. It has been burned twice. It is currently part of a golf course.

History

It was enlarged in 1809 to a design by Richard Morrison on the site of an earlier house built in 1758 and incorporated part of the fabric of the original building. The 'castle' aspect of the name relates to the

crenellation A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

s of the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

. The large two-storey south-facing elevation with the entrance consisted of six bays flanked by three-storey, single-bay circular corner turrets. It was originally

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

ed and faced an enclosed courtyard. The site was the property of the Crosbie family, historically associated with the bishopric of

Ardfert Ardfert () is a village and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Kerry, Ireland. Historically a religious centre, the economy of the locality is driven by agriculture and its position as a dormitory town, being only from Tralee. T ...

from the time of the Right Reverend John Crosbie (formerly Sean Mac an Chrosáin); before then the Mac an Chrosáin family were a bardic family of

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

. From 1709, the property was the possession of Thomas Crosbie, member of parliament (MP) for Kerry (1709–10) and

Dingle Dingle ( or ''Daingean Uí Chúis'', meaning "fort of Ó Cúis") is a town in County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The only town on the Dingle Peninsula (known in Irish as ''Corca Dhuibhne''), it sits on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coa ...

(1713-1731), High Sheriff of Kerry in 1712 and 1714. The line of succession followed: James Crosbie (1731, High Sheriff in 1751); Pierce Crosby (1761, High Sheriff in 1779, 1797); James Crosbie (1797, High Sheriff 1792, MP for Kerry (1797-1800); Pierce Crosbie (1836, High Sheriff 1815); James Crosbie (High Sheriff 1862, colonel Kerry Militia); James Dayrolles Crosbie (1865-1947) (High Sheriff 1894, Deputy Lieutenant Co. Kerry 1900, chairman of Tralee & Fenit Railway Co., Brigadier-General 1916–17, JP).

War of Independence

From 1890, parts of the site were used a

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...

(RIC) station. On the 1 December 1912, a hay shed at the Castle was set on fire; the following day, two further hay sheds were similarly destroyed, burning 200 tons of hay. James Crosbie made a claim for £1000 damages. From 1916 through to 1920, Crosbie auctioned the demesne lands of the estate to local people and also sold the Castle to Jeremiah Leen, ending the Crosbie connexion with Ballyheigue. In early 1921, the building was vacant. Later, a Mr. R. Palmer and Mrs. Erskine were resident in the castle for a few weeks. Erskine was involved in some Castle-related transaction with Palmer, a proprietor of local creameries. He planned to live in England and informed Michael Pierce, captain of the Ballyheigue Company of the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...

, that the building was to be occupied by the British military. Pierce informed his battalion OC. In March 1921, the building was occupied by elements of the

. Following a sweep across north Kerry from the coast as far as

Kilflynn Kilflynn () is a village and a civil parish in north County Kerry, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is 11 km north-east of Tralee just off the N69 road (Ireland), N69 road from Tralee to Listowel. Etymology The origin of the place name ...

to find IRA members, hundreds of men were detained in outbuildings on the site. On 25 May 1921, an auction of the buildings' contents was held at the castle. On 27 May, it was attacked and burned by local Irish Volunteers. In October the same year, Palmer was awarded £127 compensation by a

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 ...

court for furniture lost in the blaze. On 14 June 1923, Leen won a case in the

King's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

against

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

underwriters who argued that he'd neglected to inform them that

Crown forces The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

had occupied the site and

Sinn Fein In the philosophy of language, the distinction between sense and reference was an idea of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege in 1892 (in his paper "On Sense and Reference"; German: "Über Sinn und Bedeutung"), reflecting the ...

members were interned there; he was awarded £9,500 and costs. During the proceedings, Thomas Clifford, a draper's assistant and IRA officer, admitted starting the blaze with petrol on floorboards after being ordered to destroy the castle.https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1190.pdf

Apartments

A low part of the building to the left of the front elevation was reconstructed and remodelled as apartments in 1975.

Golf course

In 1998, Ballyheigue Castle Golf Course was officially opened by the

Minister for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...

Dick Spring Richard Martin Spring (born 29 August 1950) is an Irish former Labour Party (Ireland), Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1982 to 1987, 1992 to November 1994, and December 1994 to 1997, Leader of the Labour Party (Ireland), L ...

, TD.

References

{{coord, 52.39228, -9.83896, format=dms, type:landmark_region:IE, display=title Castles in County Kerry Former official residences in the Republic of Ireland