This month we visit one of our largest townlands, Ballykilty, which is 2.4km/0.93 miles square or 596 acres.
Baile Uí Chaoilte, the homestead of the Ó Keilty family, has always been recorded as some anglicized version of the original Gaelic name. PW Joyce translates the name as Baile Ó Coiltedh – O’Kiltys homestead. The area in which this townland is situated is associated with the McInerney clan, there is no record of an Uí Caoilte/O’Keilty family connection. John O’Donovan records it as Baile Coillte, suggesting that it derives its name from its woodlands, which makes sense to anyone who has walked through the manor estate that still dominates it to this day.
The townland stretches from Ballykilty Manor on the road to Dromoland, to the new cemetery on the Sixmilebridge road. It reaches east and west of the original road into Quin from Limerick. It was originally two separate townlands, Ballyquiltybeg being the other associated name.
The following residents are recorded in the:
1659 Census – (Ballyquilty) 10 residents (all Irish), William Creagh Esq is the owner.
(Ballyquiltybeg) 10 residents (all Irish), James Reeves Gent is the owner.
1855 Griffiths Valuation – John Blood, James Corbett, Patrick Corbett, John McCue, Michael McNamara, Michael Buckley, Patrick Walsh, William Monsell.
1901 Census – John/Jane Blood & son plus 4 servants; Nora Ryan & family including her mother Mary Corbett and 5 children; Patrick/Ann McNamara & 3 children; Michael Corbett & 4 children; Denis/Maria McNamara & 3 children; James/Mary Kate Corbett plus visitor (Matt Hourigan, local tailor) and boarder; Michael McNamara (shepherd); Patrick/Johanna Casey and daughter. Total 38 persons.
1911 Census – Fitzgerald Blood plus 3 servants (Pat Ryan, Bridget Hayes, Norah Quinlan); Nora Ryan & family including her mother Mary Corbett and 6 children; Ann McNamara & 2 sons; Michael Corbett & 3 children; Denis/Maria McNamara & 2 children; Mary Kate Corbett plus 2 children, 1 servant(Pat Fahey); Patrick/Isabella Kilmartin and 5 children (see photo below). Total 36 persons.
Michael Kilmartin (1942-2022) and his brother Patrick (1944-2007) with sister Mary (1946-2020) helping their father, Michael (1903-1996) on their farm in Ballykilty in the early 1950’s. Courtesy of Ellen Charge via The Vintage Lens Photo Archive.
Ballykilty Manor
Associated names: Creagh, McMahon, Monsell, Davoren, Blood, Conroy, Atlantis Development.
There are plenty of articles and websites providing historical information on this house, so in keeping with the other townland posts, I will not cover the same territory again. Please see https://ebw.pms.mybluehost.me/the-big-houses-in-and-around-quin-and-clooney/Ballykilty for more detailed information. The website refers to the kitchen mantlepiece “These chimneys were built by John Macnamara and Honora Clancy in 1614“. Some records state that this chimney was taken from Danganbrack Castle, home of the McNamaras, and rebuilt when Ballykilty was constructed in 1760. Its not known who might have been responsible for this act.
Other records speculate that it was taken from the original Ballykilty house (homeplace of the McInernry sept, a junior sept of the McNamaras-Clann Chuiléin) that was on the site prior to the existing house. The monument (CL043-023001), made up of the script plaque, mantlepiece and cornerstones, appears to have been removed for conservation in 2010 and is presently in storage. It would be lovely if someday Danganbrack castle was purchased by the state and restored with this monument reinstated, if indeed this is its rightful place.
The Monsell’s, an English family, were the owners of Ballykilty Manor prior to the Bloods and were related to the Perys of Limerick. The Earl of Limerick, a member of the Pery family, was a major property owner in the village of Quin prior to the ‘Encumbered Estates’ process which allowed for locals to own their own homes.
Monument Features within Ballykilty
CL042-018— 042-/03/4 14042/17317 – Watermill
CL042-019— 042-/07/1 14041/17273 – Burial Ground/Cillín
CL042-020— 042-/07/I 14073/17267 – Ringfort Rath/Cashel
CL042-023— 042-/03/5 14107/17320 – House 17th century B/Kilty Manor
CL042-024— 042-/07/2 14131/17276 – Enclosure
CL042-025— 042-/07/2 14143/17269 – Ballylassa Fort (stone faced platform, 102ft wide)
CL042-028— 042-/07/3 14192/17286 – Enclosure
CL042-029— 042-/07/3 14230/17284 – Enclosure
CL042-030— 042-/03/6 14242/17316 – Enclosure – Parkatruhaun Fort
CL042-127— 042-/07/3 14239/17240 – Enclosure Possible
CL042-128— 042-/03/5 14142/17340 – Enclosure
CL042-129— 042-/03/5 14147/17331 – Enclosure
CL042-130— 042-/03/5 14149/17342 – Standing Stone
CL043-023001 – Chimney Piece (of Danganbrack Castle?)
CL042-173001 – Fulacht Fia
CL042-173002 – Fulacht Fia
CL042-174001 – Fulacht Fia
Closing comment
Outside of Ballykilty Manor Estate, this townland is almost entirely devoted to agricultural use. It is amongst the best in the county, as witnessed by the 2023 auction and record sale of 47 acres, see https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/farming/1308588/record-price-of-1-35m-paid-for-47-acres-at-auction-in-limerick.html. However, it is still strongly identified with the estate that now sits idle, having provided a valuable asset and amenity to the community as a hotel with its grounds. It has been vandalised and plundered since becoming vacant and plans for its redevelopment have not succeeded. The hotel history probably deserves a post of its own, I am sure there must be great stories to be told. Hopefully it will be brought back to life sometime in the not too distant future.
The historical place of the McInerney Clan in the story of Ballykilty needs to be reinforced. The history of Ballykilty did not begin with the building of the current Manor house in 1760. Whether the Great Mantlepiece belongs to Danganbrack or Ballykilty, an watchful eye needs to be kept to ensure it returns to Quin sometime in the future. Whether Ballykilty Manor or Danganbrack Castle, both these man made features are a vital asset in this communities heritage and should not be allowed to return to nature through neglect.
Historical references:
Monsell family https://landedestates.ie/estate/1994
Blood family https://landedestates.ie/estate/1993
1930’s Schools Folklore Collection:
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5177641/5175693
Westropp – Types of the ringforts in Eastern Clare P.69
TVAS Report on recent archaeological testing of ‘hollow’ in Ballykilty
https://excavations.ie/report/2022/Clare/0032516/
“..that John McInerney, and Mahone McInerney, of Ballykilty, gents., did, by statute staple defeazanced, acknowledge to owe to said James Martin, the sum of £44 yearly, until the sum of £330, lent by Martin to the McInerneys, together with interest at ten percent should be repaid…”
James Frost, The History and Topography of the County of Clare: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the 18th.Century. P329
GENEALOGY OF CLANN McINERNEY
The McInerney demesne at Ballykilty in the parish of Quin may have formed part of the original patrimony of the clann as it was occupied exclusively by the ceannfine – or sept-head – of the McInerneys in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ballykilty was located on the southern boundary of the original Uí Caisin lands and was near Danganbrack, the residence of the McNamara Fionn chiefs of west Clann Chuiléin. Collateral McInerney land in the parishes of Kilnasoolagh and Clonloghan may have come into the family after 1318 because before this date they were the patrimony of the Uí Bloid clanns.
The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw much change in east Clare as the McNamaras expanded into neighbouring Uí Bloid tuatha and sidelined their Uí Gráda (O’Grady) rivals. By allying with clann Taidhg Uí Bhriain during the wars of Thomond the McNamaras defeated the Norman colonisation of Tradaree. The climate was right for Donnchadha Mac Con Mara’s airchinneach line to flourish. During this time the McInerneys are first mentioned as a distinct clann, suggesting that they had grown in influence and were prominent enough to be mentioned as a McNamara sept in their own right. The importance of the McInerneys is shown by the several pedigrees that were later drawn up to support the claims of the leading branch of the McInerneys to the ownership of Ballysallagh, Ballykilty and Carrigoran. This also showed that the McInerneys held some importance (at the local level) in the Gaelic social system to warrant several pedigrees outlining patrilineal descent of the clann from its twelfth century origins. The division of the family into two genealogical branches was probably done to support the land claims of the dominant family branch who were vying for control over the clann lands of Ballykilty, Ballysallagh and Carrigoran during the 1560s and 1570s.
We know that the rich pastoral land of Ballykilty probably served as the demesne of the McInerney ceannfine as it was sometimes pledged as collateral in land deeds, had two-water mills, and possibly a fortified house that was built in the seventeenth century or earlier on the site of the current Ballykilty house. Ballykilty was also the principal residence of the leading faction of the McInerney deirbhfhine who emerged successful after a challenge from a junior branch of the family over the inheritance of the bulk of the McInerney lands. It would seem likely, therefore, that Ballykilty served as the sept’s demesne and their most important landholding. This is supported by the fact that it was exclusively a McInerney possession until the 1650s. Ultimately it was the senior branch of the McInerneys that prevailed, ousting the junior faction from the lands of Ballykilty, Ballysallagh and Carrigoran.
extracts From “Survey of the McInerney Sept of Thomond” by luke mcinerney m.a.
Below right: Tom Fahy on the Ballykilty Manor Pitch & Putt grounds
Michael Maguire 2024
