Castlemaine, Co. Kerry

Castlemaine · Co. Kerry

The hinge between two peninsulas, claimed by an Australian ballad.

Castlemaine is the village you pass through on the way to somewhere else, and that is the most honest thing you can say about it. It sits at the head of Castlemaine Harbour, where the River Maine empties into Dingle Bay, and it is the bridging point between the Iveragh peninsula to the south and the Dingle peninsula to the north. Take the N70 and you are on the Ring of Kerry. Take the R561 and you are on the road to Inch, Annascaul, Dingle. Most cars do not stop. The petrol station and the pub are doing fine all the same.

The fame of the place is borrowed. The Wild Colonial Boy, the Australian-Irish bushranger ballad, has the line "born and raised in Ireland, in a place called Castlemaine" - and a long argument about whether it is this Castlemaine or the one in Victoria. The Kerry village has the better story, the longer Irish, and now a bronze statue in the centre of the village put up in 2019. The Australian Castlemaine has the goldfields and the brewery. Pick whichever you like; both versions claim the song, and the song has never settled.

There is a ruined Geraldine castle here that the village is named after, built on a bridge over the river in 1215 to mark the Earls of Desmond's southern boundary. It sat through a thirteen-month siege in 1598-1599, was sold off to George Carew, and was finished by Cromwell's lot in 1652. There is not much left to see. The harbour outside the village, on the other hand, is a Special Area of Conservation - Brent geese, oystercatchers, sanderlings, mudflats - and is doing better than the castle ever did.

Population

~177 (2022)

Walk score

A bridge, a statue, a pub. Five-minute stroll.

Founded

Castle of Maine built 1215

Coords

52.1681° N, 9.7008° 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 junction

Where two peninsulas meet.

The N70 runs south to Killorglin and the Ring of Kerry. The R561 runs west to Inch and Dingle. Castlemaine is the bridge between them, where the River Maine slides into the harbour.

Getting there → 02 The ballad

"In a place called Castlemaine."

The Wild Colonial Boy - a 19th-century bushranger song - names the village as Jack Duggan's birthplace. Whether the song is about him, a Donahue, or a Doolan from Castlemaine, Victoria, depends on which scholar you ask. The village put up a statue in 2019 anyway.

Stories & lore → 03 Inch nearby

Twelve kilometres to the strand.

The road west from Castlemaine drops you onto Inch - a five-kilometre spit of flat sand sticking out into Dingle Bay. Surfers, walkers, the Ryan's Daughter beach. Worth a morning even if Castlemaine itself is a five-minute stop.

Walks & outings →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

Jack Duggan's

Named for the ballad

Pub on the Tralee road

The pub on the N70 named after the Wild Colonial Boy himself. Whether or not the real Jack Duggan ever drank in a real Castlemaine pub, this one has taken the name and run with it. Standard country pub - pint, fire, talk.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

A song that won’t settle

The Wild Colonial Boy

The ballad goes: "There was a wild colonial boy, Jack Duggan was his name. He was born and raised in Ireland, in a place called Castlemaine." It is one of the great Irish-Australian songs - sung in The Quiet Man, recorded by The Pogues with The Dubliners, top of the Australian charts in Dr. Hook's hands in 1981. The trouble is the name. Most folklorists think the original bushranger was Jack Donahue, killed by police in 1830, and that Duggan, Doolan and Dolan are later substitutions. There is also a Castlemaine in Victoria, gold-rush country, which has its own claim. The Kerry village has decided not to argue. The statue went up in 2019 in the centre of the village. Stand by it for thirty seconds and someone will tell you the song is theirs.

A 13-month siege

The Castle of Maine

The Geraldines built the original castle in 1215 on a bridge over the River Maine - a fortified crossing point marking the southern edge of the Earls of Desmond's territory. By the 1570s it was an English Crown fortress. In 1598 the Irish put it under a thirteen-month siege during the Nine Years' War; the garrison eventually surrendered, the castle changed hands, and Sir George Carew took ownership in 1599. Cromwell's army demolished what was left in 1652. Today there is a fragment by the bridge and a name on every map within fifty kilometres.

A protected estuary

The harbour

Castlemaine Harbour is not really in the village - it stretches west from the bridge for ten kilometres or more, ending at Inch on one side and Cromane on the other. It is a Ramsar wetland, a Special Area of Conservation, and a Special Protection Area, all at once. Light-bellied Brent geese overwinter here in their thousands. Oystercatchers and sanderlings work the mudflats. One of Ireland's four largest seagrass beds is somewhere underneath. The endangered natterjack toad lives in the dunes. Most people drive over the bridge and never look down.

Ryan’s Daughter country

The road to Inch

Twelve kilometres west of the village, the R561 drops you onto Inch Strand - a sand spit five kilometres long sticking out into Dingle Bay. David Lean filmed Ryan's Daughter here in 1969, half-built a village on the dunes, and left half of it for the wind to take back. The strand is one of the great Kerry beaches: flat, hard sand, surf at the end, a chowder shack at the entrance. Most people who come to Castlemaine are really on their way to Inch, and that is fair enough.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Inch Strand Twelve kilometres west on the R561. Hard flat sand running out into Dingle Bay. Surfers at the end, dunes behind, a cafe at the entrance. The Ryan's Daughter beach. Better than anything in the village itself - drive out, walk it, drive back.

5 km of beachdistance

However long you havetime

Castlemaine Harbour shore The estuary west of the village is a Special Area of Conservation. Walk the lane down toward the harbour at low tide, watch the waders work the mudflats. Brent geese in winter. Wellies, not runners - the harbour does not pretend to be tidy.

Variabledistance

1-2 hourstime

The bridge and the river The five-minute version: the bridge over the Maine, the fragment of the old castle, the statue of the Wild Colonial Boy, back to the pub. That is the village walked.

1 kmdistance

20 mintime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, lambs along the harbour, light coming back. Inch Strand at low tide on a clear day is hard to beat.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The N70 turns into the Ring of Kerry traffic and Castlemaine is the bottleneck. Either pass through early or accept the queue.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The harbour starts to fill with Brent geese in October. Big skies. The road empties.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Wet, dark, and the village shuts in on itself. The harbour birds are at their best and the pub is at its most local.

◐ 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.

Looking for the castle

There is barely a wall left. A fragment by the bridge is the lot. Don't drive in for it; drive in for the statue and the bridge view, and read about the castle elsewhere.

Treating it as a destination

It is a junction village of about 180 people. Stay in Dingle, Killorglin or Killarney; pass through Castlemaine on the way to Inch.

The petrol-station coffee as a meal

If you are stopping for food, push on ten minutes either way to Killorglin or Milltown, both of which have actual cafes.

Arguing about the song

The Wild Colonial Boy may or may not be from this Castlemaine. The village has decided it is. Buy the postcard, take the photo, move on.

Getting there.

By car

Junction of the N70 (Tralee-Killorglin-Ring of Kerry) and the R561 (the road to Inch and Dingle). 15 minutes from Killorglin, 20 from Tralee, 35 to Killarney, 45 to Dingle via Inch and Annascaul.

By bus

Bus Éireann routes between Tralee, Killarney, Killorglin and Dingle pass through. Several services daily. The bus stop is the bridge.

By train

No station. The line through Castlemaine closed in 1960. Nearest train is Tralee, 20 minutes north.

By air

Kerry Airport (KIR) is 25 minutes by car. Cork is 1h 45m. Shannon is 2h.

Next on the tour

Co. Kerry

Killorglin

Ten minutes south on the N70. Puck Fair town, gateway to the Ring of Kerry, a proper main street.

Co. Kerry

Dingle

West over the peninsula via Inch. The fishing town, the sessions, the long road to Slea Head.

Co. Kerry

Milltown

Five minutes back up the N70. Old mill town, a quieter version of the same valley.