Overview
Ballyduff (Irish An Baile Dubh, ‘the black townland’) is a small village in North Kerry, on the R551 between Ballyheigue and Ballybunion, on hills above Cashen Bay where the River Feale runs out to the sea. About 25 km north of Tralee, it is quiet farming country rather than a tourist town, and its one genuine landmark is just outside it at Rattoo. If you have half an hour here, give it to the round tower and the carvings on it.
Rattoo Round Tower
Rattoo Round Tower is the only complete round tower in County Kerry, which is reason enough to stop. It stands about 29.56m tall, with a base circumference of 15m, and dates to around 1100 on the grounds of a monastery traditionally founded by Bishop Lughach, one of the first Christian evangelists in Kerry. The doorway, set roughly ten feet up and facing southeast, carries fine curvilinear moulding. Its real curiosity is a sheela-na-gig carved inside, an explicit female figure used as a protective charm, and the only one known on any Irish round tower. The remains of an old church sit beside it.
One honest caveat, and an important one: the tower is an unguided Office of Public Works site, and as of 2025–26 it has been closed to entry for conservation work. You cannot go inside or climb it at present. It is still well worth seeing from the outside, but check the OPW listing before you travel if getting in matters to you. Access is free.
The North Kerry Museum
The village’s other real draw is the North Kerry Museum at Knoppogue North, Ayle, overlooking the Cashen River. It runs from the Mesolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze and Iron Ages to the Christian and Viking eras and on to the 20th century and the Civil War, with rooms on smuggling and piracy, old farming methods, the local great houses, thatched cottages and the land wars. Allow about an hour; there is free parking.
A hurling village in a football county
Ballyduff’s oddest claim to fame: its GAA club won the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in 1891, trained by James McDonnell, the only time a Kerry team has ever taken that title in the home of Gaelic football. The village also fields a soccer side, Rattoo Rovers, in the Kerry District League, and a statue in Ballyduff honours the wrestler Steve ‘Crusher’ Casey.
Its history runs darker too. On 1 November 1920, in reprisal for IRA actions against the RIC, the Black and Tans shot a local man, John Houlihan, dead, burned the creamery and torched seven homes in the Abbeydorney area. Two of the area’s three great houses, Rattoo Great House and Bushmount, still stand; Ballyhorgan House was burned in 1920.
Practical information
- Getting there: by car on the R551, easily reached from Listowel or Tralee. Rattoo is signposted just outside the village.
- Public transport: better than you would expect for a village this size. Local Link Kerry runs several routes through Ballyduff, including Route 274 (Tarbert–Ballybunion–Ballyduff–Ardfert–Tralee) and services to Listowel and Tralee.
- Supplies: the Centra at Lacca is open Monday to Saturday 07:30–21:00 and Sunday 08:00–21:00; there are no facilities at the tower itself.
- Nearby: the beaches and cliffs of Ballybunion, the Kerry Writers’ Museum in Listowel, and the cathedral and round tower at Ardfert are all a short drive.
Before you drive out to Rattoo, check the OPW site: the tower has been closed for works, and there is no point arriving expecting to climb it. Come for the exterior, the sheela-na-gig and the museum, and you will not be disappointed.