Ballymalis Castle is a

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

and

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

located in

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Location

Ballymalis Castle is located northwest of

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

, on the north bank of the

River Laune The River Laune (; Irish: ''An Leamhain'') is a river in County Kerry, Ireland, which flows from Lough Leane (sometimes written as Lough Lein), one of the Lakes of Killarney, through Beaufort, past Ballymalis Castle, through the town of Killo ...

, near its confluence with the

River Gaddagh A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wa ...

. The

Ring of Kerry The Ring of Kerry ( ga, Mórchuaird Chiarraí) is a circular tourist route in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. Clockwise from Killarney it follows the N71 to Kenmare, then the N70 around the Iveragh Peninsula to Killorglin – passing ...

runs to the north.

History

This castle was built in the early 16th century by the Ó Muircheartaigh (O'Moriartys). It later passed to the Ó Fearghuis (Ferrises), who renovated it in the late 16th century. In 1677 the manor was confiscated by the Crown and granted to Sir Francis Brewster, who granted it to the Eager (Eagar) family.

Building

This is a tower house, partially restored. It is rectangular, with four storeys and an attic, with

bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from the ...

s in the southwest and northeast corners. Also featured are slopstones, a

machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...

, chimneys, fireplaces and decorated windows with

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s and

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

s. Some of the

alure An alure (O. Fr., from ''aller'', "to walk") or allure is an architectural term for an alley, passage, the water-way or flat gutter behind a parapet, the galleries of a clerestory, or sometimes even the aisle itself of a church. The term is occasio ...

(

wall-walk A ''chemin de ronde'' (French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; ), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement. In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficul ...

) survives. File:Castles of Munster, Ballymalis, Kerry (2) - geograph.org.uk - 1392752.jpg, File:Castles of Munster, Ballymalis, Kerry (3) - geograph.org.uk - 1392760.jpg File:Castles of Munster, Ballymalis, Kerry (4) - geograph.org.uk - 1392765.jpg,

References

National monuments in County Kerry Castles in County Kerry {{Ireland-castle-stub