Barryscourt Castle

The site at Carrigtwohill has been occupied for over a thousand years. There is evidence that a wooden watermill was built beside a stream here at some point in the 7th century, long before any fortification existed on the ground. Barryscourt fell into the hands of the Anglo-Norman de Barry family in the 12th century. Masonry of that period has been found on the site, though what it belonged to remains unsettled: it may be the remains of another watermill, or of an early fortification put up by the Barrys themselves.

De Barry lands lay in various parts of County Cork and were divided among branches of the family, but Barryscourt stayed in the hands of the most powerful of them, the Barrymores, Barra mór or the Great Barry. The tower house that survives was probably built late in the Barrymore period, in either the 15th or the 16th century; its architectural style gives a tentative date of about 1550. It became the seat of the family.

The Barrymore line later became extinct, and in 1556 Barryscourt passed to a distant cousin, James FitzRichard of the Barryroes, Barra rua or the Red Barry.

The Barrys supported the Desmond Rebellions of 1569 and 1579. In 1581 they destroyed or severely damaged the family castles to prevent English forces from capturing them; Barryscourt was among them, threatened by an army led by Sir Walter Raleigh.

After the suppression of the second rebellion the Barrys were pardoned by Queen Elizabeth I, and Barryscourt was repaired. An outer wall, the bawn, was added around an inner courtyard, with three corner towers set into it.

Inside that bawn, beside the main tower, stood a large building, probably a dining hall; only ruins of it remain. The castle's dungeon was of the kind a prisoner was dropped into from above.

Barryscourt ceased to be the main residence of the Barry family in 1617. The English-born judge Luke Gernon visited the castle in 1620 and left a detailed description of it.

It was evidently still a fortification of consequence for many years afterwards. In 1645, during the Irish Confederate War, the castle was attacked and captured, and the marks left by cannonballs striking the walls can still be seen. Barryscourt eventually fell into disuse, and the Coppinger family, who had taken the property over from the Barrys, built a house beside it in the early 18th century. That house has long since disappeared.

The Barryscourt Trust was set up in 1987 to conserve the castle and develop its potential as a heritage site. In the 1990s the relatively intact shell of the tower house was repaired and reroofed by Dúchas.

The castle is a national monument of Ireland and is run as a heritage site by the Office of Public Works, with the interior furnished as it would have been in the 16th century. Guided tours are given daily, free of charge.