ByRoute 4.2 Co. Tipperary & Co. Cork (W)
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Cahir (Co. Tipperary / Southwest)
Cahir / Caher (pronounced “Care”) (an Cathair – “the Rock / Fort”; from Cathair-dun-Iascaigh – “the (Stone) Fort of the Fish”) (pop.3000) is a pleasant market town on the River Suir, with several good pubs etc.
Cahir Castle
Cahir Castle, set on a former rocky islet in the River Suir, is one of the largest and best preserved castles in Ireland. (Photo - StefanServos)
The Gaelic chieftain Connor O’Brien, Prince of Thomond, was the first to build a fortress on the rock in 1152, and Philip de Worcester founded the Norman edifice, but it was James Butler, created Baron of Cahir in 1375 for his loyalty to King Edward III, who made this into one of the most powerful castles in the country.
The Butlers of Cahir took up arms against Queen Elizabeth I in the Nine Years War; the castle was captured in 1599 after a three day artillery siege by the army of the Earl of Essex (his only significant achievement in Ireland) and put under the charge of Sir Charles Blount for a year.
During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the castle was surrendered twice by the young Lord Cahir’s guardian, George Mathew, once in 1647 to Lord Inchiquin following his victory at the Battle of Knocknanauss, and again in 1650 to Oliver Cromwell, without a shot being fired.
The castle was largely restored and “improved” in 1840 by Richard Butler, 10th Baron Caher and 2nd (and last) Earl of Glengall, whose financial circumstances forced him to sell it ten years later. His only child, Lady Margaret Butler, married the 9th Earl of Wemyss’s son, Lt Col Hon Richard Charteris, who repurchased it.
A plaque commemorates the 12th and last Lord Cahir, Lt Col Richard Butler Charteris, who was born in the castle in 1866, and died in 1961, whereupon the castle reverted to the State.
The castle was used in the filming of both Excalibur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The informative OPW guided tour is well worth taking.
Caher Park, once part of the castle’s demesne, is very pleasant, with paths meandering through mature woodland of beech, oak, Spanish chestnut, sycamore and other broadleaf trees. Wildlife includes red squirrels, swans, ducks, cormorants, pheasant and woodcock. Horse riding facilities are available. The Coronation Walk is a riverside path connecting Cahir Castle and the Swiss Cottage.
The Swiss Cottage
The Swiss Cottage is a thatched cottage orné in lavish Regency Picturesque style, probably designed by John Nash of Brighton Pavilion fame. (Photo by Stefan Riesner)
It was built in 1810 to provide the relatives and friends of the Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall, with a lodge of fashionably romantic rustic simplicity from which to enjoy their hunting, shooting and fishing.
The roof thatch, ornate timberwork and climbing roses cannot conceal its generous dimensions, including ballroom and wine cellar.
Its status as a unique period piece makes it a popular attraction. Although compulsory, the Guided Tours are well-worth taking.
Many of Caher’s older buildings were restored by the Butler family, who later lost most of the estate through bankruptcy.
Cahir Abbey
Cahir Abbey, an Augustinian establishment known to have existed in 1200, was also called the Priory of St. Mary and Caherdunesque / Kaherdunesch.
An early patron was Geoffrey de Camville, Baron of Fedamore, and the Cahir and County Limerick abbeys were closely linked for several centuries. The last Prior, Edmond O’Lenergan, surrendered the abbey upon King Henry VIII‘s 1540 Dissolution of the Monasteries and was made Vicar of the parish church of St. Mary.
The chancel of the (possibly older) church survives, with a good row of C15th single-light windows in the north wall, and an interesting very late east window with carved heads.
The massive residential tower was most likely built in the years immediately following the 1540 Dissolution, using the stones of the nave and residential buildings of the Priory.
A second, smaller residential tower is located in a detached position to the South.
St Paul’s church (CoI), designed by John Nash and consecrated in 1820, is an exceptionally fine building that, unusually, retains its original pews and galleries. Fine stained glass windows, including one by Ninian Comper, are protected by ugly iron grids due to repeated incidents of vandalism.
St Mary’s church (RC), designed by John B Keane of Dublin, was built in 1839 to replace a reportedly very impressive 1790 structure, provided by the Butler family. The imposing organ was installed in 1850. The present interior is the result of “renovation” in 1970.
Cahir House Hotel, originally an C18th Butler family mansion, is a central landmark in the town. Although it has only a three star rating because of an absence of lifts, it has been held in high regard for over a century, featuring very pleasant bedrooms, an excellent restaurant and O’Brien’s Bar, probably the most popular drinking place in Cahir.
Tinsley House, a 19th townhouse named after William Tinsley, who planned the town for the 1st Earl of Glengall, is a former antique shop with bedrooms upstairs. Centrally located, the beautifully furnished family home of Liam and Patricia Roche provides very reasonably priced B&B Accomodation.
Carrigeen Castle
Carrigeen Castle (1816) replaced a previous fort used by King William III‘s Danish troops in 1690.
The present castellated building, designed by Michael Bernard Mullins to overawe the local population, was built as a Bridewell (small gaol with holding cells), lavishly funded by the County Tipperary Grand Jury (predecessor of the County Council), at the behest of the elder Richard Butler. Each cell contained, per person, one iron bedstead, one bed ticken and three blankets. The prisoners were fed a pound of bread and a pint of new milk for breakfast, and a pound of bread and a pint of skimmed milk for dinner.
Closed by the prison authorities in 1878, the keepers’ residence was leased to local military officers until 1919, when it was acquired by David Butler (1890-1955), whose son Séan Butler renovated the entire building and opened it a a Guesthouse in 1976. His wife Peig and son David still provide well reviewed B&B accommodation, attracting particularly favourable comments for the views over the town.
The Kilcoran Lodge Hotel is an attractive old-fashioned hotel, popular as a wedding venue for its beautifully landscaped grounds, with a number of self-catering lodges.
Cahir sits on what used to be a major crossroads between Clonmel, Cashel on ByRoute 5 and Tipperary Town on ByRoute 6, and is not far from Clogheen on ByRoute 3.
Ballylooby & Tubbrid (Co. Tipperary / Southwest)
Ballylooby (Béal Átha Lúbaigh) is a village and parish situated on the Thomoge River, which rises in the nearby Galty Mountains.
St Kieran’s church (RC) was erected in 1813 and virtually rebuilt in 1929.
The former RIC barracks, sold to a local schoolteacher in 1919, became the focus of international attention in December 1920 when two former constables who had been stationed there gave evidence to the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland of the brutality and lawlessness of the Black & Tans.
The Village Inn, adjacent to the church, is a friendly pub with a beer garden, and serves good food.
Tubrid / Tubbrid is an abandoned village containing several remains of historical / architectural significance.
The Mortuary Chapel, now roofless, is the burial place of the great Gaelic poet / scholar Seathrún Céitinn / Geoffrey Keating, author of the first history of Ireland from prehistoric to Norman times, Foras Feasa ar Éirin (1634), and several other notable contemporaries.
St John’s church (CoI), now also roofless, was built in 1820 and was abandoned in 1919.
Roosca / Ruscoe Castle was the home of James Butler, hanged in Clonmel in 1653 for leading attacks on Golden during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Ballylooby and Tubbrid are close to Clogheen on ByRoute 3.
Burncourt & Skeheenarinky (Co. Tipperary / Southwest)
Burncourt is a small village that, like the Burncourt River, takes its name from the famous nearby castle. The area was granted by King Charles I to Sir Richard Everard in 1640.
Burncourt Castle
Burncourt Castle / The Burnt Court / Clogheen Castle / House is arguably the best example of a Tudor style fortified house in Ireland.
Construction of the many-gabled mansion commenced in 1641, at the start of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Sir Richard Everard became a leading member of the Kilkenny Confederacy, and was hanged by General Ireton in 1651.
Oliver Cromwell mentioned visiting it in 1649, although according to tradition it was burned down by the chatelaine, Lady Everard, to prevent its use by approaching Parliamentarian troops. Whoever set the fire, the house was left an empty shell.
C18th engravings show the ruins much as they are now, except that the chimneystacks were still standing. The artist was Anthony Chearnley, who built a house in the bawn and laid out formal gardens nearby.
Glengarra Wood contains many species of native trees, interspersed with open areas of flowering woodland plants. Providing a variety of wildlife habitats, the wood is home to pheasant, jay, kestrel, sparrow hawk, nesting ravens, heron, dipper, grey wagtail and a host of songbirds, together with fallow deer, badger, fox, hare, stoat, red squirrel, wild mink, otter and pine marten. The numerous ponds and wet areas are home to frogs and newts. The land belonged until 1940 to the O’Callaghan family, who held the titles of Baron and Viscount Lismore. A former hunting lodge has been converted into a hostel.
Mitchelstown Caves
Mitchelstown Caves, located 12km east of Mitchelstown (Co. Cork), are (just) in Co. Tipperary.
The Old Caves, which are very difficult of access, involving descent by rope ladder, were used as a hiding place by the doomed last Earl of Desmond, outlawed and on the run after the failure of the abortive Second Desmond Rebellion.
The New Caves, discovered in 1833 when a farm labourer dropped his crowbar into a crevasse while quarrying limestone, are an unusually extensive prehistoric cave network of great beauty and scientific interest. Stalactites, stalagmites, calcite columns and flowstones combine to make up surprising formations, many with colourful names. There are 350-million-year-old fossils as well as some more recent cave fauna; the rare Porrhomma Myops spider is an interesting inhabitant.
Guided tours take visitors for approximately 3km through the caverns.
Skeheenarinky National School, constructed in 1858, is believed to be the oldest NS building still used for its original purpose in Ireland.
Ballyporeen (Co. Tipperary / Southwest)
Ballyporeen (Beál Átha Poirín – “Ford mouth of the little hole”) (pop. 300) is a village on the River Duag.
The church of the Assumption (RC) was erected in 1828.
Ballyporeen & Ronald Reagan
Ballyporeen was briefly in the limelight in 1984, when US President Ronald Reagan visited on the pretext that his grandfather, Michael Regan was baptized in the town in 1828 and lived there until his emigration to America in the 1860s.
The President delivered a speech about his ancestry and the “Irish-American tradition“, and sipped a pint of Guinness in The Ronald Reagan pub, now closed, as is the Ronald Reagan Visitor Centre, due to lack of visitors.
The Reagan visit to Ireland was accompanied by protests against US foreign policy, particularly Reagan’s backing of the Contras in Nicaragua. Singer Christy Moore memorably rallied protesters with the song Hey Ronnie Reagan, but peaceful demonstrations in Dublin and elsewhere were savagely repressed by Gardai.
Ballyporeen shares a strong GAA sporting tradition with the neighbouring community of Skeheenarinky.
Ballyporeen is not far from Kilbehenny (Co. Limerick) on ByRoute 5.
