ballymoon castle

The castle consists of a square central courtyard surrounded by walls which are eight feet thick and twenty feet high, with square towers projecting from three sides. On the fourth side is the gate with a pointed arch and a groove for the portcullis. The interior of the castle is bare, but originally there were two-storey structures built up against the inside walls. However, few traces of these remain, and local tradition explains this by saying that the castle was never finished. There is a good double fireplace on the first floor, and some cross-shaped slits through which arrows were shot. The castle was probably built by Roger Bigod or by a member of the carew family between 1290 and 1310. Otherwise little or nothing is known of its history, though in the past it has been wrongly associated with the Knights Templars.