You can’t get into Kilbolane Castle – the masonry is fragile and the Office of Public Works keeps public access closed – but two round towers and a moat that still holds water are clearly visible from the road above Milford, and that’s most of the reason to stop. It’s one of a line of Norman enclosure castles, Liscarroll among them, built to hold the frontier against the Gaelic clans pushing from the west: no central keep, just high curtain walls linking circular corner towers, ringed by a deep moat. Two of the four towers and stretches of wall are what’s left.
Who built it, and when
That’s less settled than you’d expect. The OPW’s account has a Norman knight, Maurice de Rocheford, raising it in the 13th century. Wikipedia and Discover Ireland reckon it went up later – 15th or 16th century – in an older, 13th-century style, and put it down to the de Cogans. What everyone agrees on is what came after: it passed to the Earls of Desmond, and following the Desmond Rebellion the crown handed it about. Hugh Cuffe got it in 1587; by 1590–91 it was with Sir William Power and his wife, Ellen Fitzgibbon, with Elizabeth I herself drawn into the dispute over it. Cromwell’s army destroyed the castle in 1642, leaving the two towers that stand today. Afterwards the towers were used separately – a Captain John Nicholls built a house against the bawn wall, and John Bowen put up Kilbolane House nearby in the 1690s – until David O’Leary Hannigan bought the site in 1897. The OPW looks after it now.
What survives
Two circular towers and sections of the south-west and north-west curtain walls outline the old rectangular footprint, and the moat still holds water, up to a couple of metres in places.
- West tower – The first-floor chamber is hexagonal, capped by a high pointed vault and lit by splayed embrasures that frame the countryside. A curving mural stair climbs from the ground floor; only a stump of the second floor is left.
- South tower – A circular chamber lit by slit windows, with a pointed domed vault above and, over the doorway, what may be a murder hole. Traces of a drawbar socket for the door remain in the stone.
Visiting
- Access – The castle sits on Kilbolane Hill, less than a kilometre from Milford. A minor road and a short lane lead to a small roadside lay-by with room for a few cars.
- The catch – You view it from the lay-by, not up close. The OPW does not permit access to the ruins, the moat is deep and unfenced, and the ground is uneven and no good for wheelchairs. Keep children in hand and stay off the walls.
- Facilities – None on site. Milford, a few minutes away, has pubs and a shop.
If you’re touring the castles of this corner of Cork, Liscarroll – bigger, the same enclosure design, and one you can actually walk into – is the better of the two; treat Kilbolane as a ten-minute roadside pause on the way there. Pair it with the medieval church ruins at Tullylease if you’ve the afternoon. For more on the island’s defensive architecture, see the Irish Castles guide.