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CLOGHROE

CO. CORK · IE

Cloghroe
An Chloch Rua, Co. Cork

The Mid Cork
STOP 07 / 07

An Chloch Rua · Co. Cork

A linear village in the Inniscarra parish northwest of Cork city - a ruined castle, one century-old pub, and a GAA club that finally won the county.

Cloghroe is not a destination, and it would not claim to be one. It is a linear village on the road northwest out of Cork city toward Banteer - a single row of houses each side, the Sheep River crossing at the western end, the church and the school in the middle, the pub at each end of the line. The name comes from cloch rua, 'red stone', for the colour in the rock around here. It sits in the parish of Inniscarra, in the old East Muskerry country that the MacCarthys ran before the Normans and the planters came through.

Two things happened to Cloghroe. The first was the dam. In 1956 the ESB flooded the Lee valley just to the west to make the Inniscarra reservoir, and the lake and its salmon and coarse fishing have been part of the local geography ever since. The second was Cork city. From the 1980s onward Cloghroe and its neighbour Tower filled up with houses for people working in the city eleven kilometres southeast, and the place became a commuter settlement with a farming past still visible in the fields around it.

Blarney, with the castle and the stone and the coach parks, is 4km west. That is where the visitors go. Cloghroe is quieter and has less to detain you - a ruined medieval castle in a field, a parish church, a good pub with a century of GAA photographs on the walls, and the reservoir down the road. If you are staying near Blarney and want a pint somewhere the tour buses do not reach, this is a fair bet. Otherwise it is a place you pass through on the way to somewhere with more to it.

Population

~500 (village)

Founded

Medieval castle (Ralph de Guines, d. 1280); modern village largely post-1980s commuter growth

Coords

51.9320° N, 8.6060° 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 name

An Chloch Rua - the red stone.

From cloch rua, 'red stone', for the colour in the local rock. The village is a single line of houses on each side of the road, the Sheep River crossing at the western end. Part of the parish of Inniscarra, barony of Barretts, about 11km northwest of Cork city.

Stories & lore → 02 The village

Commuter belt now, farming before that.

Cloghroe and neighbouring Tower grew fast as a Cork-city dormitory from the 1980s on. There is a church, a primary school, a pub, and not much else. The tourist money is 4km west at Blarney. Cloghroe is where the people who serve Blarney tend to live.

Walks & outings → 03 The club

Inniscarra GAA, county champions at last in 2022.

The Wayside Inn at the eastern end is the parish GAA pub. Inniscarra won the Cork Premier Intermediate Hurling title in 2022, the club's first county, beating Castlemartyr in a replay at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The pub walls have the photos to prove it.

Pubs →

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 Wayside Inn

Family-run local, a century in the one family

Village pub, eastern end

Run by Kathleen O'Leary with her husband John Keating, and licensed since 1907 - the original name 'D Ó Laogaire' is still over the door for Kathleen's grandfather David. The walls are GAA: Inniscarra teams, the 2022 county, greyhounds, golf societies, camogie. The parish pub in every sense, and the one to make for if you want the real version of Cloghroe rather than the Blarney coach-trade. The village's one functioning pub.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Ralph de Guines, d. 1280

Cloghroe Castle

The castle was built by Ralph de Guines, who died in 1280 - a small Anglo-Norman tower on a square of about eight metres a side, in the territory the MacCarthys held as the Kingdom of Muskerry. By the time of the 1656 Down Survey it was already recorded as ruinous. What survives now is fragmentary: a stretch of wall on the southern edge about 1.2 metres high, another piece of masonry on the west. It is catalogued in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. There is a local detail worth the visit - a brick-arched recess in the southeast corner known as 'Capel's Hole', where the body of Captain Joseph Capel of nearby Cloghroe House was said to have been placed. Bring boots and low expectations; this is ruin, not monument.

A Georgian house, built mid-1700s

Cloghroe House and the Judkin-FitzGeralds

Cloghroe House was put up in the middle of the eighteenth century and was home to Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Capel, before her marriage to Colonel Sir Thomas Judkin-FitzGerald. Judkin-FitzGerald was the high sheriff of Tipperary during the 1798 rebellion and is remembered, not fondly, for the brutality of his suppression of it - one of the harder figures of that year. The house ties this quiet townland to one of the more notorious names of 1798.

Dedicated to a sixth-century saint

St Senan and the church

The parish church here is dedicated to St Senan, a sixth-century Munster saint better associated with Scattery Island on the Shannon, which tells you something about how far his cult travelled. The present church was built in the nineteenth century and has been renovated in recent years to keep it in parish use. It is the still point of a village that otherwise mostly commutes.

Inniscarra GAA, 2022

The county at last

Inniscarra is the GAA club for Cloghroe and the wider parish, and 2022 was its year. The club took the Cork Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship - its first county title - beating Castlemartyr 3-12 to 1-17 in a replayed final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on 22 October, and went senior on the back of it. The club's older ground was at Cloghroe itself, on land beside the former Healys premises; the main pitches are now at Ballyanly. The Wayside Inn in the village is where the celebrating was done.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Inniscarra reservoir shore The ESB reservoir on the Lee, a couple of kilometres west, is the open-water amenity for the area - 530-odd hectares of lake created in 1956. Anglers come for the bream, rudd, roach, pike and the salmon fishery (permit required from Inland Fisheries Ireland). It is fishing water more than a marked-trail walk, but the lanes and bank access points give you flat, quiet ground beside the water.

Variousdistance

Allow 1-2 hourstime

Coachford Greenway Further west toward Coachford, a multi-use path runs along about 2.8km of the reservoir bank, built with anglers in mind but open to walkers and cyclists, with parking bays and access points along it. The nearest proper laid-out walk to Cloghroe, and a good flat stretch by the water.

2.8 km of bankdistance

1 hourtime

Cloghroe Castle ruin The fragmentary remains of the medieval castle are in a field in the townland. It is a ruin, not a managed site - check access locally, mind the ground, and do not expect more than a couple of low stretches of wall and the 'Capel's Hole' recess. For the curious only.

Shortdistance

30 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Lee valley greens up and the reservoir is at its best for a quiet walk before the summer angling crowds. Mild and uncrowded; Blarney is busy enough that staying out this side has its appeal.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings, the fishing in full swing on Inniscarra reservoir, and the Wayside busy with GAA and golf-society nights. Blarney 4km away will be thronged; Cloghroe gives you a base away from it.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Championship season for the GAA, which is when the parish pub is at its liveliest. The reservoir light is good and the angling continues.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and little to do beyond the pub and the church. The fishing and the walks go quiet. Pleasant enough if you are passing, but not a winter destination in itself.

◐ 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.

Coming to Cloghroe for sights

There is one ruined castle in a field, a parish church, and a good pub. That is the village. If you want castle-and-coach-park tourism, Blarney is four kilometres west and exists for exactly that. Cloghroe is a place to stay near, drink in, or pass through - not a morning's sightseeing.

Looking for Blairs Inn

Blairs Inn, the award-winning Cloghroe pub-restaurant by the Sheep River, closed in November 2024 after nearly forty years under the Blair family. It is gone. The Wayside Inn at the other end of the village is the pub that remains.

Expecting a managed castle site

Cloghroe Castle is a fragment - a metre or so of wall in two places - on private-feeling ground, not a heritage attraction with a car park and a guide. Treat it as a ruin to find, not a site to tour, and check access locally before tramping across fields.

Getting there.

By car

Off the R617 between Blarney and Tower, about 11km (7 miles) northwest of Cork city centre. The R579 runs west from here toward Coachford and Banteer. Easiest reached by car; parking is roadside and informal.

By bus

Bus Éireann and Local Link services run through the Tower and Blarney corridor from Cork city; check current timetables, as rural frequencies are limited. Blarney, 4km west, has more regular city buses.

By train

No station. Kent Station in Cork city, about 12km southeast, is the nearest rail, on the Dublin, Cobh and Mallow lines.

By air

Cork Airport (ORK) is about 20km south, roughly 30 minutes by car through or around the city.