The silver that walked
The Golden Lyon
On the 20th of October 1730 the Danish East-Indiaman Golden Lyon, bound from Copenhagen to Tranquebar, was wrecked off Ballyheigue Strand. Twelve chests of silver bullion came ashore. Sir Thomas Crosbie hauled the lot up to Ballyheigue Castle for safekeeping and promptly died. The Danes stayed on as guests of his widow, Lady Margaret. On the 12th of June 1731 the castle was attacked, the chests vanished, and the Danish captain reportedly recognised Lady Margaret's nephew among the raiders. Nine men were tried. None were convicted. The bulk of the silver was never recovered. The legend that the Crosbies were wreckers — false lights on horses' heads, ships steered onto the breakers — came later, and is the kind of story a coastline tells about a landlord nobody liked.
The night the castle burned
27 May 1921
The RIC had occupied Ballyheigue Castle from March 1921 and used it for sweeps against IRA men in the North Kerry hills. On the 27th of May 1921 it was attacked and burned. Thomas Clifford, a draper's assistant and IRA officer, later admitted pouring petrol on the floorboards under orders. Jeremiah Leen, who had bought the place, eventually won £9,500 from Lloyd's of London — they hadn't been told the Crown forces were inside. The shell stayed. A wing was rebuilt as apartments in 1975. Ballyheigue Castle Golf Course was opened in the grounds in 1998 by Dick Spring, then Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The writer at the end of the road
Christy Brown
Christy Brown, the Dublin writer and painter who wrote Down All The Days and the memoir later filmed as My Left Foot, lived in Ballyheigue from 1975 to 1980. He died in 1981. The plaque is small. The fact is large. Don O'Neill, the New York-based fashion designer who has dressed Michelle Obama and half of Hollywood, also grew up here. So did Richard Cantillon, the 18th-century Kerry-born economist credited with coining the word entrepreneur. A small village punches above the dictionary.
Out to the western tip
Kerry Head
Kerry Head is the headland north-west of the village, dividing Tralee Bay from the Shannon Estuary. Maulin (218m) is the highest point. On a clear day you can see across to Loop Head in Clare and south to Mount Brandon. Dolphins from the Shannon mouth are seen from the cliffs often enough that the locals stop pointing. The road that loops the head is a small thing the maps barely take seriously. Drive it slowly and stop where it tells you to.