Ballyhealy Castle

Map Reference: T004057 (3004, 1057)

Ballyhealy Castle seems to have been built by Sir Richard Whitty but may have passed, through marriage, to the Cheevers Family, who still held it at the time of the Cromwellian confiscations. At that time the castle came into the possession of Colonel Bunbury, a Cromwellian soldier.The tower survives to rebuilt battlements with good quoins and a base-batter although the interior has been remodelled as a modern dwelling. The dressed stone is Old Red Sandstone. A round-headed doorway of undressed stone towards W end of the S wall gives access through a lobby to the ground floor which has six embrasures, two with double-splayed loops surviving and antechamber at NW angle.



The stairs in the W wall lead through a lintelled doorway to a loft under the vault, with one window, and first-floor hall which had two-light cusped ogee-headed windows with seats in N and E walls. There is a garderobe at the NE angle, a fireplace and slop-stone in the N wall and an inserted window in S wall. Mural stairs rise from the S end of the W wall to the second storey which had a double-light cusped ogee-headed window in the E wall and similar single-light window in the N wall. There is a fireplace in the N wall, a garderobe at the NE angle, an antechamber at the NW angle and a slit window in the S wall. The stairs continue to the third storey which has simple slit windows in the N, E and S walls. The crenellations have been rebuilt although the four lookout platforms may be original.