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BUTTEVANT

CO. CORK · IE

Buttevant
Cill na Mullach, Co. Cork

The North Cork
STOP 09 / 09

Cill na Mullach · Co. Cork

The place that invented the steeplechase, sitting on a thin medieval street that has been quietly emptying out for two hundred years.

The name is Anglo-Norman. Boutez en avant - push forward - was the de Barry family motto, and the Barrys held this stretch of the Awbeg valley hard enough that the motto became the town. The Irish name tells a different story: Cill na Mullach, the church of the hillocks, older than the Normans and pointing at something that was here before they came.

It was a proper walled town once. The crown gave murage grants in 1317 to pay for the walls; there were two gates, north and south, and Edward III put more money into the North Gate in 1375. Almost all of that is gone now - you get one fragment of wall beside the friary gable and the rest is in the line of the street. The de Barrys built their stronghold here, and a separate tower, Lombard's Castle, went up around 1400 for a family of wool merchants who had come over from Italy.

Two religious houses bracket the town and they are the reason to stop. The Franciscan friary stands roofless in the middle of Main Street, over the Awbeg, one of the earliest Franciscan churches left in Ireland. A mile south at Ballybeg, the Augustinian priory keeps the finest medieval dovecote in the country - a round stone columbarium with hundreds of nesting niches built into the wall. Neither charges admission. Neither is busy.

Don't arrive expecting a destination. Buttevant is a working North Cork street on the Cork-Limerick road, quieter now than it was in the nineteenth century, with the kind of services a town of a thousand people keeps and no more. Come for the friary, the priory, the steeplechase story, and the sense of a place that was once a good deal bigger than it is. Mallow, fifteen minutes south, has the restaurants and the train.

Population

~1,080 (2022)

Founded

Norman walled town, de Barry family, early 13th century; charter under Edward III

Coords

52.2317° N, 8.6697° W

01 / 09

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 friary

A 1251 Franciscan friary standing roofless in the middle of the town.

One of the earliest surviving Franciscan houses in Ireland, founded by the de Barrys and dedicated to St Thomas Becket. Nave, choir, and a crypt said to hold the bones of the dead from the Battle of Knocknanuss. Free to walk into, right on Main Street.

Stories & lore → 02 The race

The first steeplechase started here in 1752.

Two riders bet they could race from Buttevant church steeple to the one in Doneraile, four and a half miles across open country. The word steeplechase comes from that afternoon. The race is why anyone outside North Cork has heard of the place.

Stories & lore → 03 The town

A walled medieval market town, now a thin main street on the N20.

Population peaked above eleven hundred, sank to nine hundred, has crept back to around 1,080. Murage grants in 1317 paid for walls and two gates. A fragment of wall still stands by the friary gable. The rest is bones under the tarmac.

Walks & outings →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Main Street bars

Local, plain, a drink and the day's talk

Village pubs

Buttevant keeps a handful of small pubs along Main Street - the kind of bars a town of a thousand people supports. None of them is a destination and listings change, so ask locally rather than book ahead. If you want a proper night out with food and choice, that is Mallow, fifteen minutes south.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Buttevant village	Basic provisions	€	A shop or two and casual food on the street - enough to keep you going, not a reason to plan a meal here. Honest rather than memorable.
Mallow (15 minutes)	Proper restaurants	€€	The straight answer. If you want a real meal, drive the fifteen minutes south to Mallow, which has the choice a market town that size carries. Buttevant does not.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Doneraile and the Awbeg valley	B&Bs and guesthouses	There are scattered guesthouse and B&B rooms in the surrounding villages, Doneraile included, ten minutes east. Small, limited, book ahead. Buttevant itself has little to no formal accommodation in the town proper.
Mallow (15 minutes)	Hotels	For a proper hotel and real choice, Mallow is the base. Buttevant is somewhere you stop for the friary and the priory, not somewhere most people stay the night.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

Racing toward a steeple

The first steeplechase, 1752

Two riders, by tradition Cornelius O'Callaghan and Edmund Blake, made a bet: race on horseback from the steeple of Buttevant's Protestant church to the steeple of the church in Doneraile, four and a half miles east across open country. No roads. Just fields, walls, ditches and water. The steeples were the markers because you could see them from a distance. They ran it. The idea of racing straight at a visible steeple - a steeple chase - took hold, the word spread, and by the nineteenth century steeplechasing was a codified sport with built courses. Buttevant did not invent the horse race. It invented the notion of racing toward something you can see rather than around a marked track.

Founded 1251, dedicated to Thomas Becket

The Franciscan friary

Founded around 1251 by David Og de Barry and dedicated to St Thomas Becket, the friary is among the earliest surviving Franciscan churches in Ireland. What stands is the nave and choir, set on steep banks over the Awbeg in the middle of the town. A central bell tower carried on arches stood until 1814, when it collapsed. The unsettling detail is below ground: a crypt under the choir is said to hold a large quantity of bones gathered after the Battle of Knocknanuss in 1647. It is roofless, weathered and open - walk in off Main Street and stand in it. Look for the tracery in the surviving windows and the slot of medieval town wall beside the gable.

Augustinians, 1229, and the finest columbarium in Ireland

Ballybeg Priory and its dovecote

A mile south of the town, Ballybeg was an Augustinian priory founded in 1229 and dissolved in 1541. The church and tower are worth the short walk, but the thing people come for is the dovecote - a round stone columbarium described as arguably the finest medieval dovecote surviving in Ireland. Inside, the wall is built up in regular tiers of nesting niches, hundreds of them, a string course running round the outside to stop weasels and martens climbing to the birds. Pigeons were not sentiment - their droppings were valuable fertiliser, and a house this size meant real income for the priory. Unguided, free, almost always empty.

July 12, and the legend of a Kerry-bought horse

Cahirmee Horse Fair

One of the oldest horse fairs in Ireland, Cahirmee moved into Buttevant town in 1921 and is held on July 12. It is a working fair - traders, buyers, horses changing hands on the street - not an event staged for visitors. The good story, repeated locally and impossible to prove, is that Napoleon's horse Marengo was bought at Cahirmee from a Kerryman. Believe as much of that as you like. The fair itself is real and old.

August 1, 1980

The 1980 rail disaster

On 1 August 1980 a Dublin-to-Cork express derailed at Buttevant station, killing eighteen people and injuring many more - one of the worst rail accidents in Irish history. The inquiry that followed drove the removal of the old wooden-bodied carriages from CIE service. The station itself had already closed to passengers in 1977, three years before. The line still runs past the town; the trains do not stop.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Franciscan friary Right on Main Street over the Awbeg. Roofless, accessible, free. Good afternoon light on the grey stone. Find the surviving window tracery and the fragment of medieval town wall by the gable. The crypt is the dark heart of it.

In the towndistance

30-45 mintime

Ballybeg Priory and dovecote Out the southern edge of the town toward Mallow. The Augustinian church and tower, and the round dovecote that is the real prize - step inside and look up at the tiers of nesting niches. Unguided OPW site, usually deserted.

~1.5 km southdistance

1 hourtime

The Awbeg riverbank Spenser's Mulla. He lived four miles off at Kilcolman and wove the Awbeg into The Faerie Queene. Nothing here is marked or sold; the river just runs quiet through the fields. Hardly anyone walks it for Spenser any more.

Variabledistance

As long as you liketime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, green, and the friary stone takes the light well. No crowds because there are never crowds.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

July 12 is Cahirmee Horse Fair - come for the working fair, not a fair staged for visitors. Otherwise summer is simply the easiest weather for the walks.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Low afternoon light on the friary and the priory walls. The best months to photograph either ruin.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and North Cork wet. The ruins are open and empty, which is its own argument, but bring boots and low expectations of the weather.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

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 town to fill a day

Buttevant is a thin main street of about a thousand people. You can see the friary, drive to Ballybeg, walk a stretch of the Awbeg and be gone inside two hours. That is not a fault. Not everywhere needs to be a destination.

Looking for restaurants or hotels in the town

Services are thin and honest. For a proper meal or a hotel bed, Mallow is fifteen minutes south. Plan accordingly rather than arrive hungry.

Hunting for an intact walled town

The walls are almost entirely gone - one fragment by the friary gable and the line of the medieval street. If you want walls still standing, this is the wrong town. What survives is the friary, the priory and the story.

Trying to catch a train from Buttevant

The station closed to passengers in 1977 and was the site of the 1980 disaster. The Dublin-Cork line still runs past the town but does not stop. The nearest working station is Mallow.

Getting there.

By car

Buttevant sits on the N20 Cork-Limerick road, about 15 minutes north of Mallow and a similar distance south of Charleville. From Cork city it is roughly 45 minutes. There is room to park on and off Main Street.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 51 (Cork-Limerick-Galway) stops on Main Street, with Mallow and Charleville the nearest larger stops. Local Link covers the rural roads around the town. Frequency is modest - check the timetable before relying on it.

By train

There is no station in Buttevant any more; it closed in 1977. The nearest working station is Mallow, about 15 minutes south, on the Dublin-Cork main line, with frequent services in both directions.

By air

Cork Airport (ORK) is about an hour south. Shannon (SNN) is around 90 minutes north. Cork is the more frequent option for most visitors.