Standing Stone	Ring Fort	Castle	Weir	Inniscarra Bridge
Oriel House	Gunpowder Mills	Lime Kiln	Military Barracks	St Mary and St John's Church

Ballincollig Castle

New date to Ballincollig Castle

Ballincollig Castle, which stands on an outcrop of limestone rock facing the Maglin valley, enjoys a rich history. The castle is seen to its best advantage from the new Ballincollig bypass. The central tower is 15 meter high and there is a curtain wall running around the edge of the rock on which it stands. The wall is about 1.5 meter thick and 3 meters high and had two defensive towers, one in ruins in the south-east corner and a second facing directly south. There appears to have been a hall built into the outer wall as there are the remains of a fireplace and chimney. The tower had three floors and a basement, probably used as a prison.

The castle is mainly associated with the Barrett family who bought the property from Robert Coll in 1468-69 and had been thought to have built a castle on the land shortly afterwards. The evidence for this was the musket loops built into the curtain wall which suggested a fifteenth century construction.

However, new evidence, cited by Dr MacCotter of UCC, has revealed definitively that the castle was built in around 1395 by a Roger Cole as a watch tower. This explains the slender shape of the castle which contrasts with the wider tower houses of later dates. Apparently Roger Cole had returned to his home in Devon following the Gaelic Resurgence but was ordered back to Ireland by King Richard II to either secure his lands or forfeit them to the king. Hence the construction of the tower which was built for defensive purposes only.

The Coles or Colls as they later became, were an Anglo-Norman family who gave their name to Ballincollig-Baile an Chollaig and who appear to have been living in the area from the 1200s.

The Barretts held the castle from 1468 until 1630 when, after much infighting, the family sold it to pay debts. In 1644 it was taken by Cromwell's forces and around 1689 it was garrisoned for James 11. But after 1690 it was unused and fell into disrepair.

In the nineteenth century, it was owned by the Wyse family and evidence of this can be seen in their stone crest inserted in the east wall of the keep with the letter W and the date 1857. Although it now stands on private land and is in a ruinous condition, it is an important landmark and reminder of Ballincollig's turbulent past.

In 2006 a planning application to build a number of new houses right up to the perimeter of the castle was turned down after local protest. BHA remains vigilant and monitors all new planning applications in the town.

For a brief history of medieval Ballincollig, see http://www.ballincollig.wordpress.com/medieval-ballincollig for an article by Dr Paul MacCotter