Ross Castle is the one most people arrive for, a 15th-century O’Donoghue tower house on the shore of Lough Leane in Killarney National Park, where the interior is seen only on a small guided tour and the pier below sends boats out to Innisfallen Island. On the Aghadoe ridge above the same lake stands Parkavonear, a two-storey cylindrical Norman keep rather than the usual rectangle, free to visit year-round.
The rest are scattered widely. Carrigafoyle sits on a rocky outcrop in the Shannon estuary at the top of the county, five storeys with a spiral stair you can still climb and a west wall that English cannon brought down in 1580. Two are on the Dingle Peninsula: Gallarus, a Knights of Kerry tower a kilometre from the oratory and closed inside, and Rahinnane, set in a much older ringfort on private farmland near Ventry, with an honesty box at the farmhouse. Ballycarbery, Cahergall and Leacanabuaile sit together off the N70 west of Cahersiveen, the castle fenced off since 2017 and the two stone forts free and far better preserved.
Several are less castle than trace: Killorglin’s one surviving wall backs a beer garden on Market Street, and Tralee Castle is marked ground on Denny Street, best paired with the Kerry County Museum. Derryquin has come down to its 1840s walled garden at Parknasilla. Dunkerron, at Templenoe west of Kenmare, still rises 18 metres on its north side.
A well-preserved 15th-century O'Donoghue tower house on Lough Leane, with a small guided tour inside and boats to Innisfallen leaving from the pier below.
Five storeys of 1490s O'Connor Kerry tower on the Shannon estuary, still missing the west wall English cannon took down in 1580, and climbable to the top.
More garden than castle now: a battlemented walled garden of about 1840 on the Parknasilla estate, reached on foot along the resort's Castle Trail.
A four-storey Norman tower near Templenoe whose north wall still rises its full 18 metres, tricky to find, with no facilities and a short walk in.
A 15th-century Knights of Kerry tower house with its vaulted roof surviving, a kilometre from the oratory and viewable from outside only.
10 of 11 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Killarney, kerry
Ross Castle stands over Lough Leane in Killarney National Park, a well-preserved 15th-century O'Donoghue tower house whose interior is seen only on a small guided tour. The pier below is the launch point for cruises to Innisfallen Island and lakeside walks under the MacGillycuddy Reeks.
kerry
Carrigafoyle Castle rises from a rocky outcrop on the Shannon estuary, a five-storey tower house built in the 1490s by the O'Connor Kerry clan. In 1580, English cannon brought down its west wall during the Desmond Rebellions. Today you can climb the spiral stairs to the top, picnic on the battlements, and see where the 'rock of the hole' still guards the shipping lanes.
Sneem, kerry
Derryquin Castle, a 19th-century Gothic-revival house near Sneem, was burnt by the IRA in 1922 and demolished in 1969. What survives is its battlemented walled garden of around 1840, now part of the Parknasilla Resort estate and reached on foot via the resort's Castle Trail. It's a ruin and a garden rather than a castle, best paired with a wider estate walk.
Templenoe, kerry
Dunkerron Castle is a four-storey tower house near Templenoe, two miles west of Kenmare, whose north wall still rises to its full 18 metres. Built by the Norman Carews in the 13th century and remodelled by the O’Sullivan Mór in 1596, it stands on a low limestone outcrop behind a holiday-home park – tricky to find, with no facilities, but quiet and worth the short walk for anyone who likes a ruin.
Baile na nGall, kerry
Gallarus Castle is a 15th-century tower house built by the Knights of Kerry, a 1 km walk from the far better-known Gallarus Oratory in the Baile na nGall Gaeltacht. The OPW manages it as a National Monument; you can view the four-storey tower and its surviving vaulted roof from outside, but the interior is closed to the public.
Cahersiveen, kerry
Built in 1870 to guard the first transatlantic telegraph cable, this RIC barracks looks more like a Bavarian schloss than a Kerry building – local lore blames a mix-up with plans meant for India. Inside are exhibitions on the Fenian Rising and Daniel O'Connell; up top, a turret with long views over the Iveragh coast.
Aghadoe, kerry
Almost every Norman keep in Ireland is rectangular. Parkavonear is a cylinder, a two-storey drum of stone with walls two metres thick, built in the century after the 1169 invasion and set inside a square earthen rampart. It shares the Aghadoe ridge above Lough Leane with a round tower and an early church, and it's free to visit year-round.
Ballycarbery, kerry
Killorglin, kerry
Northwest of Ventry, kerry
Tralee, kerry
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