Ireland · Ruin
Ballycarbery Castle
Ballycarbery Castle is a 16th‑century stone castle ruin on a grassy hill near Cahersiveen in County Kerry, Ireland. The surviving fabric includes a tall rectangular tower and large curtain/keep walls, much of which is now missing or roofless.
Its prime
1550
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1550
What Ballycarbery Castle looked like in its prime.
The castle reads as a broken rectangular silhouette: a tall, crenellated stone tower at one end and a larger central keep/curtain wall mass with its rear wall largely gone. Surviving walls are rough grey limestone rubble with visible narrow arrow‑slit openings near the base and stepped masonry. Much of the structure is roofless at prime, with first‑floor openings and stair locations evident; the whole stands on a gentle grassy hill facing the sea.
Its story
The story of Ballycarbery Castle.
From Carberry O'Shea to Sir Valentine Browne
The first fortification on the grass hill facing the sea, three kilometres from Cahersiveen in County Kerry and a short way from the stone forts of Cahergall and Leacanabuile, was established in 1398 by the man the castle is named for, Carberry O'Shea. The property was later lost in a conflict with the MacCarthy clan.
The ruins standing there now are those of a castle built in the sixteenth century. Some accounts of that period noted it as a McCarthy Mor castle, though whether the McCarthy Mors held it themselves or their wardens the O'Connells did is unknown. On the death of its owner Donal McCarthy More it passed to Sir Valentine Browne.
Parliament's Cannon and the Lauder House, 1652–1900s
In 1652, during the War of the Three Kingdoms, Parliament forces attacked the castle with cannon fire. In the eighteenth century a house was raised on the site using the barn wall, and the Lauder family lived in it. That house was demolished in the early twentieth century.
The Grounds Closed in 2017
The ruin stands on private land. Until 2017 it was possible to walk the castle grounds and climb on the remains; that year the landowner ended public access on health and safety grounds, and the castle has been viewed since from a small parking area about 100 metres from its front.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1550.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Ballycarbery Castle, including 3 interiors: roofed ground-floor chamber with internal stair, external-entry staircase in the wall, first-floor hall and small rooms. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Ballycarbery Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1550, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Defend this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Ballycarbery Castle.
The families that held Ballycarbery Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Held by the MacCarthys; on the death of Donal McCarthy More the castle passed to Sir Valentine Browne.
