The Hurley Castle

 'Skibbereen and District Historical Society'  (Cork) 


"Ballinacarriga Castle" was built c1585 by the Hurley family and it is fitting that the speaker is Margaret Hurley whose family are natives of this area. Margaret has a keen interest in local history and a degree in geography and archaeology. Working at the Skibbereen Heritage Centre, she has built on her previous knowledge and is also a qualified tour guide. 

The talk will concentrate on three main areas; the construction of the building, the Hurley family and the fine example of a Sheila Na Gigs at the castle. 

Starting with the construction, Margaret will explain the building methods of the period which would be common with most of these fortified castles. She will point out some of its features, e.g. machicolations and bartizans and explain their use. There are several rare personal family inscriptions and religious ornamentations in the interior of the castle. 

Moving on to the history of the Hurley family who reigned at the castle for over two centuries. Randal Hurley who built the castle in 1585 was married to Catherine, whose father was a famous doctor from Bandon. Catherine and her family were a colourful family and Margaret will cover some of the mythology attached to these two families. Their son Randal Óg allowed the local people to use the castle as a church while Fanlobbus church was being built nearby. Margaret has many stories and fables about these families and how they came to be finally dispossessed of the castle. 

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Beal na Carraige -  “The mouth or Passage of the Rock” Ballinacarriga castle lies just off the main road from Ballineen to Dunmanway, about halfway between these towns.  From there a side road clearly signposted goes for about a mile and a half over Manch Bridge and the Bandon River to the castle.  To the south there is a lake and from it a stream runs under a small bridge and the walls of the castle to join the Bandon River to the North.  It provided a supply of water to the castle in the days of its glory. 
The castle is a four story tower, built on a rocky eminence with a good view in all directions, and overlooks Ballinacarriga lough (lake). It is unique
for the number of important stone carvings it contains, mainly on what was the third floor, which is easily accessible by a circular stairway built into the thickness of the wall.  These carvings are mostly of a religious nature.  In one window arch, on the top floor, the Crucifixion is shown, Christ on the cross, between two thieves, with the instruments of the passion nearby – a crown of thorns, a hammer, and a heart pierced with two swords.  In the soffit on the north window are the initials “R.M. C.C.” and the date 1585.  These are believed to be the initials of Randal Murlihy (Hurley) and his wife Catherine Cullinane, and the date of the erection of the building – although its is generally accepted that the greater part of the castle is older and may have been in the possession of the MacCarthys before the Hurleys took over. Formerly, the Hurleys occupied lands about a mile to the south, in the townland of Gloun, where some scant remains of buildings are to be seen.  On the opposite window are intricate carvings around a chessboard design, and also the figure of a woman with five roses, which has been stated to represent Catherine Cullinane and her five children, but is more generally believed locally to be of the Blessed Virgin

[Source: Ballinacarriga]

    All the Irish gentry-in this and the adjoining neigbourhoods-who sided with the rebels in the last great war, were dispossessed,  Foremost amongst these was Randal Oge Hurly, of Ballinacorriga Castle.  His father also (Randal Oge Hurly) married Catherine, daughter of O'Cullinane of Timoleague, who was physician to Mac Carthy-Reagh of Kilbrittain Castle, and was one of the family of the O'Cullinanes-a family which had for many generations supplied physicians to the royal house of the Mac Carthys.*
    This Randal Oge,† who built the castle of Beallenecarrigy in 1585, died in 1631, as appears from an Inquisition held in Bandon on the 16th of September in that year, and was succeeded by his son, Randal Oge.  The castle is a strong, square tower, nearly one hundred feet in height, and stands on the crest of a bold, bare rock, which rises upwards of  forty feet above the waters of an adjoining lake.  A few yards in its front is a small circular tower,  This formerly guarded an angle of the wall which enclosed the castle, of which not a trace is now to be found, as the wall itself, and the three other towers at the other angles, were removed to aid the building of the adjacent four-mill  [Source: Chapter 10, History of Bandon]

Also See: Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly
              O'Hurly of Ballinacarriga.