The fine ruins of this fortress are situated about half a mile south of Carrigtohill, in the County Cork.

It consists of a rectangular structure about 70 feet in height, flanked by three towers, which open into the main building at each storey.

A small oblong shaft in the south-east angle of the keep runs from the upper to the lower rooms. A passage in the main north wall is now filled up.

The arches are of good workmanship and well preserved. In some of the smaller apartments the marks of the wattle frames used in the building are still easily traced on the ceilings, which show an early date of construction.

In the chamber above the chapel appears the date 1588, as well as an inscription stating the castle was erected by “D.B.” and “E.R.,” which initials stand for David Barry and his wife, Eliza Roche. In another room the date 1596 is inscribed.

The lands of the Barrys in Cork were confirmed to Philip Barry by King John in 1206, and he later became possessed of Barry’s Court. The present castle is, however, supposed to have been built during the fourteenth century.

Tradition states it was erected upon the site of an older fortress belonging to the Lyons or Lehanes of Castle Lyons, and that during the excavations for the present foundations an inscribed stone was found stating that “O’Lehan hoc fecit MCIII.,” but O’Donovan does not think the story probable.

Geraldus Cambrensis is credited with having written part of his history of the conquest in the earlier castle.

In 1490 the head of the Barry family was summoned to Parliament as Lord Barry of Barry’s Court, and 1588 “James Barry of Barrescourt, Viscount Barrymore, otherwise James, called Barrymore and Barryroo,” was in possession.

The Commissioners who were appointed to govern Munster while the Earl of Desmond was in prison, wrote, after arriving in Cork, in 1568: “Wood Kerne, under Gerot Bracke, one of the Earl of Desmond’s near kinsmen, intercepted our letters, certain Kerne lay in ambush for us, but Lord Barrymore and John FitzEdmund, Dean of Cloyne, met us, and led us to Barry’s Court.”

In 1580 Sir Walter Raleigh started from Cork to make complaint to Lord Grey in Dublin that the Barrys and Condons were in league with the rebels. He received orders to besiege Barry’s Court, but Lord Barry, hearing of his intention, set the castle on fire, while he and his friend, Fitzgerald, the seneschal of Imokilly, lay in wait for Sir Walter at the ford near the old abbey of Midleton.

In the encounter so little expected, Raleigh only saved his life by his somewhat foolhardy daring.

In the account of his doings in Ireland in 1583, Sir Henry Sydney writes: “I was well entertained at the Viscount Barrie’s house, called Barrie’s Court.”

During the Desmond rebellion of 1585, David Lord Barry, whose initials are carved over the mantelpiece of the castle, was associated with the disaffected. He afterwards submitted and sat on the Council of Munster under Sir George Carew. He was present at the relief of Kinsale in 1602, and died at Barry’s Court in 1617. He was the second son of James Barry, and his wife, Ellen Roche, was a daughter of Lord Fermoy.

Writing of him in 1606, Sir John Davys says: “From Youghall we went to Cork, and dined by the way with the Viscount Barrie, who, at his castle at Barriecourt, gave us civil and plentiful entertainment.”

Barryscourt was regranted by James I. to his grandson David, who succeeded him.

The castle seems to have again been consumed by fire after James II.’s visit to Ireland, as it is stated that the velvet bed hung with gold brocade in which he slept at Sir James Cotter’s, of Ballinsperrig, was then at Barryscourt, and so destroyed by the conflagration.

The castle was in possession of the Coppinger family for many years, William Coppinger being the owner in 1861.

It now belongs to Lord Barrymore.

A member of the Wakeham family informs me that it was in possession of her ancestors several centuries ago, and that the Lord Barrymore of that day gave the owners, John and William Wakeham, the estates of Springhill and Water-rock instead of it, which their descendants still possess.