Ballinagree, Baile na Graí, Co. Cork

Baile na Graí · Co. Cork

A scattered upland village at the foot of the Boggeragh Mountains, the home ground of the Bold Thady Quill, with a Bronze Age stone circle on the hill above it.

Ballinagree sits at the foot of the Boggeragh Mountains in mid-Cork, in the parish of Aghinagh, about ten kilometres northeast of Macroom and six west of Rylane. It is upland farming country - high, green, wet, and quiet. The village is not a single street so much as a loose gathering of houses around a church and a national school, spread across the townlands.

Two things give the place its name beyond the parish. The first is the Bold Thady Quill, the comic ballad written by Johnny Tom Gleeson around 1895, which names Ballinagree and which half of Ireland can still sing a verse of at a match. The second is up the hill: Carrigagulla, a Bronze Age stone circle in a bowl of the Boggeragh foothills, one of a dense scatter of megalithic monuments across these uplands.

There is no hotel and no restaurant here. There are two country bars - the Laine Bar and the Ploughman - of the kind that keep their own hours, and a national school that has been the heart of the place for generations. The late-1990s building boom left a couple of unfinished housing estates that locals call the ghost estates, a reminder that even hill villages got caught in the Celtic Tiger.

Come here to walk the Boggeragh, to climb to a stone circle that almost nobody else bothers with, or to sing the song where it was set. Otherwise this is somewhere you pass through on the back roads between Macroom and Millstreet, and there is no shame in that.

Population

a few hundred in the parish

Pubs

2and counting

Founded

Townland and parish settlement; church and school the modern core

Coords

51.9769° N, 8.9250° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The song

This is Thady Quill country.

Johnny Tom Gleeson wrote 'The Bold Thady Quill' from nearby Rylane around 1895, and Ballinagree is named in the verses. The song became one of the best-known comic ballads in Ireland. The real Timothy Quill was a poor labourer who was nothing like the swaggering athlete of the lyric.

Stories & lore → 02 The stones

A Bronze Age stone circle three kilometres up the hill.

Carrigagulla is an axial stone circle of sixteen stones, with two stone rows and a lost ogham stone, sitting in an amphitheatre of Boggeragh foothills. Bronze Age, roughly 1500-800 BC. Few people make the climb.

Walks & outings → 03 The place

Upland farming country, not a tourist stop.

A church, a national school, two country bars and houses scattered across the townlands of Aghinagh parish. No hotel, no restaurant. Macroom is the nearest town with full services, ten kilometres southwest.

What to skip →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Laine Bar

Rural local

Country bar, Ballinagree West

One of two bars in the townlands. A proper hill-country local rather than anywhere you would plan an evening around. Ring ahead or ask locally before relying on it - country bars out here keep their own hours.

The Ploughman

Rural local

Lounge bar, Ballinagree West

The other bar in the area, also at Ballinagree West. Same caveat as the Laine: this is a local that serves the farming community, not a destination, and opening times are its own business. Worth a pint if it is open.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Johnny Tom Gleeson, c. 1895

The Bold Thady Quill

The most famous thing to come out of these townlands is a joke. Johnny Tom Gleeson (1853-1924), a farmer and self-appointed balladeer from near Rylane, wrote 'The Bold Thady Quill' around 1895, lampooning a neighbour. The real Timothy 'Thady' Quill (c. 1860-1932) was a poor labourer and occasional cattle jobber, a big man but no athlete, by accounts teetotal, who slept in barns and died a bachelor. Gleeson cast him as a beer-swilling, lady-killing sporting hero who could hurl, court and drink any man under the table - the comedy being that he was none of those things. Ballinagree is named in the verses. The song outlived both men and is still belted out at Cork hurling and football matches. The Clancy Brothers recorded it. Not bad for a wind-up about a man sleeping in a hay barn.

Bronze Age, c. 1500-800 BC

Carrigagulla stone circle

Almost three kilometres northeast of the village, in a natural amphitheatre of the Boggeragh foothills, sits Carrigagulla - an axial stone circle about eight metres across, made of sixteen standing stones around a central slab. There were probably seventeen originally. Two stone rows stand nearby, and an ogham stone was once part of the complex, turned up by Coillte during peat cutting and now kept in Cork Public Museum since 1940. Four stones of one of the rows ended up reused as field gates, which tells you how long people here lived alongside these things without ceremony. The Boggeragh uplands are thick with megalithic monuments; Carrigagulla is the one worth the climb.

Diocese of Cloyne

St John the Baptist and Aghinagh parish

Ballinagree is one of the settlements of Aghinagh parish, alongside Bealnamorive, Rusheen and part of Carrigadrohid, in the Diocese of Cloyne. The parish runs three churches dedicated to St John the Baptist, one of them in Ballinagree itself. The old Church of Ireland church at Aghinagh, now a ruin, was built in the 1790s on the site of an earlier church, its surrounding gravestones dating back to at least the mid-18th century. This is a parish that long predates the modern village.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Carrigagulla stone circle Northeast of the village toward the Boggeragh foothills. The reward is an eight-metre Bronze Age stone circle of sixteen stones with stone rows nearby, in a quiet bowl of upland. There is no visitor centre and no signage to speak of; it is open hillside and bog, so wear boots and check the ground. Genuinely few people come.

short but rough underfootdistance

1 to 2 hourstime

Boggeragh Mountains hill country The Boggeragh range rolls north and east of the village - rounded, boggy, monument-studded uplands rather than dramatic peaks. Good for a long quiet walk on back roads and open ground with big mid-Cork views. This is the country the village sits at the foot of; treat the weather with respect, it changes fast up here.

as far as you make itdistance

half daytime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Boggeragh uplands green up and the ground firms a little after winter. Best light for the climb to Carrigagulla.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the driest ground of the year. The right time to walk the hills and find the stone circle without wading.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Quiet, often clear, the uplands turning. Good walking before the wet sets in.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

High, wet and exposed. The hill ground turns to bog and the weather closes in fast. Walks up to the stones are best left for a dry spell.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a village centre

There is no main street to stroll. Ballinagree is a church, a school, a couple of bars and houses spread across upland townlands. Come for the hills and the stones, not for a wander round a square.

The ghost estates

A couple of housing estates went up in the late-1990s boom and were never properly finished or sold. They are a footnote in the village's recent history, not a sight. Drive past them to the hills.

Relying on the bars being open

Two country bars serve the parish, but they keep rural hours and are not geared for passing visitors. Do not plan a meal or a guaranteed pint here. Macroom, ten kilometres southwest, has full services.

Getting there.

By car

On back roads at the foot of the Boggeragh Mountains, about 10 km northeast of Macroom and 6 km west of Rylane. Easiest approach is to leave the N22 at Macroom and follow the local roads north, or come across from Coachford to the southeast. Bring a map; the lanes are narrow and the signage is light.

By bus

No direct service to the village. The nearest scheduled buses are at Macroom on the N22 (Cork to Killarney corridor). Local Link covers parts of rural mid-Cork but check current routes; a car is effectively necessary to reach Ballinagree.

By train

No railway. The nearest station is in Cork city, about 29 km east, on the Dublin and Cork main lines.