Conna Castle stands on a height that looms over the valley of the River Bride, a tributary of the Blackwater in Co. Cork. The Castle is a classic Irish Towerhouse, built around 1500 AD. After the rise in hostility between the Gaelic Irish and Anglo–Norman settlers in the fourteenth century, tower-houses became a common sight across Ireland, particularly within The Pale, the Anglo-controlled territory along the eastern coast. The English Crown had offered a subsidy of £10 to wealthy inhabitants of The Pale to build 'small towers to fortify their lands'.

The tower-house was usually surrounded by a bawn wall. This was often a large stone wall that served as the first line of defence. However there are very little remains of Conna's bawn wall as with most tower-houses the bawn wall is often removed, with its stone being recycled into other buildings over the centuries after the site is abandoned.

Tower-houses were not solely used by the Anglo-Norman settlers, the Gaelic Irish began to construct their own from the early fifteenth century, calling them caislén or caistél. Conna Castle was built by the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond, an Anglo-Norman family who had become increasingly assimilated into the Gaelic Irish culture. They resisted the Reformation during the reign of Elizabeth Ist and broke out into open rebellion in 1569. They failed, and the rebellion was ruthlessly crushed.  Their lands (including Conna) were seized by the Crown, even though the owner of the castle at the time Thomas Ruadh Fitzgerald had no part in the rebellion.

View from the base of Conna Castle over the River Bride

They were given to the famous English explorer, Walter Raleigh, who was granted 12,000 acres in Munster and made the nearby Lismore Castle into an elegant home. Thomas Ruadh went to London to try to press his rights as the legal heir to all of the Fitzgerald estates, but he was sent home empty handed, given only a nickname – Sugán Earl – The Straw Earl. 

When Hugh O'Neill launched his rebellion in Ulster in 1598, and achieved a great victory over the English at the Battle of the Yellow Ford, The Sugán Earl was emboldened, and launched his own rebellion. Supported by 4,000 troops sent by O'Neill, The Sugán Earl led a campaign to burn out the English settlers across Munster, however in 1601 he was betrayed by his kinsman, The White Knight. The Sugán Earl was taken to the Tower of London, where he became insane and died. Conna was then given to the Earl of Cork, Richard Boyle. In 1645 it was captured by Lord Castlehaven, and in 1650 Conna managed to hold off a ferocious attack by Oliver Cromwell, however it was burned in 1653 in a fire that killed three of the stewards daughters. 

Conna Castle passed from owner to owner until it came into the hands of the L'Estrange Family in the mid-nineteenth century, it was willed to the state in 1915. Conna Castle is easy to find as you can see it from miles away! It's located in the village of Conna between Fermoy and Tallow in Co. Cork. Park on the street and then access the site through the gate following the well made paths up the hill.

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The tomb at Labbacallee near Glanworth in Co. Cork is Ireland's largest example of a wedge tomb, with a chamber that measures nearly 14m long. Wedge tombs are the most common of Ireland's megalithic tombs, and are most commonly found in the western half of the country. The name 'wedge tomb' simply refers to the simple wedge shape, as the height and width of the monument decreases from the front to the rear. Wedge tombs are the last of Ireland's megalithic tombs, and usually date to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age periods.

Labbacallee was excavated by Harold Leask and Liam Price in 1934. They found that the burial chamber was divided into two parts, a long gallery (see the header photo) and a small box like feature at the eastern end. This eastern feature contained cremated remains, and an unburned but headless skeleton of an adult female. The skull was found in the gallery next to the skeletons of an adult male and child. The remains of these three individuals were radiocarbon dated, the results revealed that they appeared to have been interred separately between 2456–1776 BC.

Folklore has always helped to protect some of Ireland's ancient sites. At Labbacallee, local legend tells the story that long ago four men went during the night to dig for gold that they believed to be buried inside the tomb at Labbacallee. As soon as they started to dig, a strange cat with fire erupting from its tail appeared, the men were terrified and dazzled by the blinding light coming from the tail of this hellish cat and they panicked, running across the fields fleeing for their lives, and in their confusion fell into the nearby River Funshion. One of the men drowned, but the others lived to pass on the warning not to disturb the ancient dead at Labbacallee!

 
The tomb is quite easy to find, from Glanworth simply head south on the R512 and take the first left after the church. The site is about 2km down this road. It will be on your left hand side behind a small stone wall. There is room to pull in off the road in front of the monument. There are a number of other great sites to see nearby, including lovely Glanworth itself with its Castle and Friary, and nearby you can also find the wonderful Bridgetown Priory.

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Bridgetown Priory is a beautifully preserved medieval priory positioned on the western bank of the River Blackwater in County Cork. The Priory was founded in the early thirteenth century, by Alexander Fitz Hugh the Norman Lord of Castletownroache. He gave the site to the Augustinian Order, with thirteen carucates of woodland, pasture and arable land. A carucate was a medieval unit of assessment, that was calculated by the area a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single season. One carucate very roughly equates to around 120 acres, suggesting that Fitz Hugh’s original donation to the Augustinians at Bridgetown was around about 1560 acres.  He also generously donated one-third of his revenue from his mills and fisheries and all tolls from the bridge that once crossed the Blackwater at the Priory.

The Augustinian order had started to flourish in Ireland after the Anglo-Norman invasions that began in 1169, and as well as the establishment of Bridgetown Priory the area suddenly sprouted more priories, friaries, abbeys and nunneries nearby in Buttevant, Fermoy, Ballybeg, Glanworth and Castlelyons. We visited the remains of a number of those sites and will cover them in future articles here on Time Travel Ireland. Bridgetown Priory was a wealthy and prosperous site for the first century after it was established. In the Papal Taxation of 1306 the value of Bridgetown was reckoned at the hefty sum of £40.

The Tomb of the Roache Family

A number of the structures that make up Bridgetown Priory have survived in excellent condition, making it a fantastic site to explore. The early thirteenth century church is in good condition and contains an internal wall that seperates the nave (where the general congregation sat during mass) from the choir (reserved for the monks and clergy). There are signs of later medieval developments and modifications at the church, with a large two-storey residential tower added. You can see an interesting fifteenth century tomb of the Roche Family in the Choir, if you look carefully at the decoration you can see an upside down shield with a fish on it. Having the shield upside down indicates the death of the bearer, and the fish was the emblem of the Roche family who were probably key benefactors of the Priory. Above the tomb there is a well preserved late thirteenth century window.








 As you pass through the church you can encounter a number of medieval buildings and features such as a sixteenth century chapel, a well preserved thirteenth century graveslab, the calefactory (or warming house, apart from the kitchen, the calefactory was the only other building in the Priory allowed to have a fire), the priors domestic quarters, a room thought to be the kitchens, a large refectory where the priors met for large communal meals and a vaulted passageway that leads to the cloister. The remains are extensive and you can easily find hours slip by at this wonderfully peaceful spot. I highly recommend a visit, it has a similar feel and atmosphere to the extensive Kells Priory in Co. Kilkenny.

By the fourteenth century Ireland had fallen into a period of strife and warfare as the resurgent Gaelic Irish fought the Anglo-Normans for supremacy. Bridgetown itself suffered during this period, and by the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during King Henry VIII’s reign in 1541 the site was noted as being largely in ruins, and its value only estimated at £13. The last Prior at Bridgetown was given a pension, and the site was granted to the English soldier Robert Browne. The site was sold on a number of times before completely falling into ruin. Cork County Council began conservation works on the site in the late 1970’s and now it is open to the public. The site is free to enter with a number of interpretation panels positioned around the priory, and there is space to park your car in front of the site.

Bridgetown Priory is located about 12km west of Fermoy off the N72. About 2km south of Castletownroache take a minor road to the west at Kilcummer. Then take the road to the south after half a kilometre, the site is well signposted.

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