Baile Chaisleáin Cainnigh · Co. Cork
A round tower with six sides instead of round - the only hexagonal one in Ireland.
Castletown-Kinneigh - locals say Castletown, or Kinneigh, or run the two together - is a small farming village in the hills of East Carbery, about five kilometres north of the twin villages of Ballineen and Enniskeane and roughly fifteen from Bandon. It is small enough that you could drive through without noticing, except for one thing standing up out of the churchyard that stops people doing exactly that.
That thing is the Kinneigh Round Tower. Ireland has around sixty round towers and they are, almost without exception, round. This one is not. It sits on a six-sided base, the only hexagonal round tower in the country, built in the early 11th century on a rock outcrop where St Mocholmóg founded a monastery in 619 AD. It is about 26 metres tall, built of local slate, and the OPW keeps it as a national monument. You walk up to it through the graveyard of St Bartholomew's Church of Ireland. No ticket, no turnstile, usually no one else there.
Beyond the tower the village is honest about its size. There is one pub, Cookie O'Callaghan's, which sponsors the local GAA and soccer clubs and does pizza on a Wednesday. There is the church, the graveyard, and the CK Community Park down the road that the whole district shares for hurling, soccer, bowling and the odd autograss meeting. For groceries, fuel and a sit-down meal you point the car at Ballineen and Enniskeane or at Bandon. Come for the tower and the quiet churchyard, not for an evening out.