In at the chalet end? A home in a castle? History and heritage come too at €225k at Ballyheigue Castle 'chalet'

1970s apartment or chalet at 210-year old Kerry castle which was burned twice, most recently in stirring times, in 1921

Sun, 12 Sep, 2021 - 12:00

If you fancy living in a castle, this three-bed apartment in Ballyheighue might be up your street, says Tommy Barker

Ballyheigue, Kerry
€225,000
Size	93 sq m (1,000 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	1
BER	G

WHAT price a home in a castle designed by a famous 19th-century architect, overlooking a beach, on the Wild Atlantic Way?

What chance €225,000?

That’s the guide now attached to 1, The Castle, Ballyheighue, a cracking address and one that should alone carry some currency and kudos in the bragging stakes.

Fore: Twice damaged by fire, Ballyheigue Castle has fronted to a golf course since 1996

No 1 is an apartment/townhouse/chalet, one of three built back in 1975 in a wing of the 200-year-old Ballyheighue Castle, 18km north of Tralee (it’s on the far left of the picture herer).

The novel-set castle apartment is in a scenic coastal setting near the village, with a beach that links along the coastline to Banna Strand and Kerry Head.

It’s also a spot with historical links to smuggling days, with tales of stolen hordes of silver bullion (some of which may even be underground in these parts).

If that’s not enough, since 1996, a nine-hole golf course has played out on part of the once-grand estate and castle grounds.

Originally a stronghold of the wealthy landlord Crosbie family, who had 13,000 acres in Kerry, Ballyheighue Castle was built in 1810 to a design by acclaimed Cork-born architect Richard Morrison, an early vice president of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.

Morrison’s extensive output includes other castles, churches, courthouses, and many mansions for well-heeled gentry.

His works include Fota House (with his son William Vitruvius Morrison), Ballyfin, Borris House, Carton House (with Richard Cassells), and Castlefreke in West Cork, as well as Shelton Abbey near Arklow, currently in use as an open prison.

Restoration drama: Castlfreke, near Clonakilty, Cork, is being restored at a multi-million cost. It was designed by Richard Morrison Pic: Larry Cummins

Coincidentally, Kerry’s Ballyheighue Castle also served its time in a previous century as a jail, and what stands today is largely what’s left after a fire just over a century ago.

Exactly a century ago, in May of the formative year 1921, it was one of a number of large houses torched in tumultuous times.

It had also suffered fire damage in the 1840s, so to have any of it still standing is notable, not to mind having sections entirely habitable.

Listed with estate agent Daire McCann of DNG Giles, No 1 The Castle, is one of three similar-sized apartments/self-contained homes in one surviving wing, complete with turret-style corner feature in cut stone.

It has about 93 sq m (1,000 sq ft) over two levels, with three first-floor bedrooms. It is in reasonable, but dated, condition decoratively.

No 1 has been in same Donohoe family hands since it was first developed in 1975, used for holidays by the family who have Cork and Kerry roots, but with a new generation who are more scattered, and who have decided with some reluctance to sell it on.

The couple who bought it nearly half a century ago had Donohoe roots in Kerry’s Gneevguilla, and Moynihan roots in Cork, related to the late and colorful Humphrey Moynihan, former proprietor of the Long Valley Bar, which has been in Moynihan family hands since 1927, and is now in its fourth generation of ownership.

The Donohoe family describes their holiday home at the castle as a chalet, and it’s priced now at €225,000 by Daire McCann of DNG Giles, down from an earlier price guide of €260,000.

Keepers? Rear yard at 1 The Castle Ballyheighue

The family says it incorporates some of the original castle walls, and they recall the stories told of underground corridors towards the sea, its earlier Crosbie family incarnation, smugglers, tales of buried Danish silver from a shipwreck and even ghosts.

VERDICT: Richly steeped in Ballyheighue, Kerry, Irish and architectural history and heritage — if the walls could talk, they’d nearly sell No 1 The Castle to you.