Ballintober, Baile an Tobair, Co. Roscommon

Baile an Tobair · Co. Roscommon

The largest keepless castle in Ireland, the seat of the O'Conor kings, and a village of two hundred people built around the well it is named for.

Ballintober is a village of about two hundred people that exists, more or less, because of one enormous ruin. The castle is the largest keepless castle in Ireland - 73.8 metres by 80.5 metres, a tower at each of the four corners, two more flanking the eastern gate, and no great central keep at all. The outer walls were the defence. It is more than twice the size of Roscommon Castle despite Roscommon having royal patronage, and standing in the field below it you feel that size before you read the numbers.

Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, built it in the early 1300s; it is first mentioned in writing in 1311. By 1381 the O'Conors had taken it, and the O'Conor Don line ruled Connacht from here for the better part of three centuries. They were not conquered invaders living in a Norman shell - they were native Irish aristocracy who took the Norman fortress and made it the caput, the principal seat, of a kingdom. Excavations have found a deserted medieval town spread east across what is now the village, roughly twice the size of the place today.

After a near-attack in 1642 the castle was abandoned as a residence, and in the 1700s the family moved to Clonalis House near Castlerea, where the O'Conor archive, Carolan's harp and the inauguration stone of the kings still sit. Ballintober Castle is still owned by the O'Conors. Since 2015 an American-led fieldschool has been digging and surveying it every July with the family and the local Tidy Towns. The ruin is dilapidated enough that formal access is prohibited - you see it from the road and the field edge, not from inside the walls.

Past the castle there is a church, a holy well, a pub, and the Suck Valley Way going through. That is the village, honestly stated. It is not a day out on its own. It is a half-hour stop with a serious ruin at the centre of it, best paired with Castlerea and Clonalis House six kilometres west.

Population

199 (2022)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Castle first mentioned in writing 1311; O'Conor caput from 1381

Coords

53.6917° N, 8.4108° 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 castle

The biggest keepless castle in Ireland, twice the size of Roscommon's.

A rectangular fortress 73.8m by 80.5m, a tower at each corner and two more flanking the east gate, built by Richard de Burgh in the early 1300s and held by the O'Conor Don line from 1381. No great keep - the outer walls did the work. The family still own it.

Stories & lore → 02 The name

Baile an Tobair - the town of the well.

The well is Tobar Bríde, St Bride's well, beside the church that carries her name. The village takes its name from the holy well, not the castle, which tells you which came first in people's heads.

Walks & outings → 03 The valley

One of the nine villages on the Suck Valley Way.

The 105km Suck Valley Way loops through Roscommon and Galway along the River Suck. Ballintober is one of its nine villages - quiet roads, fields, woods and riverbank. Six kilometres from Castlerea and Clonalis House, where the O'Conors moved when they left the castle.

Getting there →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

Garvey's Bar

One pub, family-run, the real thing

Village pub & lounge

The pub in Ballintober, and it has been the Garvey family's since 1941, when they bought the old Castle House - a public house, general store and undertakers all in one - and carved T.F. GARVEY in the stone over the door, where it still is. In its day they bottled their own stout and bagged their own tea; the singing on Friday nights and the cards on Saturday for prizes of turkeys and geese are part of the lore. Damien and Mary Garvey run it now. Food on request, and a stop on the Suck Valley Way. If you want a pint in Ballintober, this is the address - and the only one.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Built c. 1300, first recorded 1311

The largest keepless castle in Ireland

Most people picture a castle as a tall stone keep - Trim, Dover, a single great tower. Ballintober is the other kind. Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, built it in the early fourteenth century as a rectangular enclosure, 73.8m by 80.5m, with a polygonal tower at each corner and two more guarding the eastern entrance. The strength is in the perimeter, not a central donjon - a keepless castle, and the biggest of its type in the country. Excavation since 2014 has found two building phases at the gate, hinting that an earlier castle stood here before the surviving walls. Parts of it still rise to around four metres. It is privately owned and access inside is prohibited on safety grounds, so this is a ruin you read from the outside - which, given the scale of it, is no great hardship.

Kings of Connacht, from 1381

The O'Conor caput

The O'Conors were the hereditary kings of Connacht and gave Ireland its last High King, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. They took Ballintober from the de Burghs before the end of the fourteenth century, and from 1381 it was the caput - the principal seat - of the O'Conor Don, one of the senior branches of the family. They held it through wars, succession quarrels and the slow tightening of English control, until a near-attack in 1642 ended its life as a home. In the eighteenth century the family decamped to Clonalis House outside Castlerea, the more comfortable address they still hold. The 1634 mausoleum of the O'Conor Don in St Bride's graveyard, and the inauguration stone of the kings now kept at Clonalis, are the two ends of the same long story.

Baile an Tobair - the town of the well

St Bride's and the well

The village is named for a well, not the castle. Tobar Bríde - St Bride's, or St Brigid's, holy well - gave the place its Irish name, Baile an Tobair, the settlement of the well, and a centre of devotion long before the de Burghs arrived. St Bride's Catholic Church stands in the middle of the village, limestone with stained glass and stone dressings, and its graveyard holds the 1634 O'Conor Don mausoleum among eighteenth- and nineteenth-century grave markers. A holy well, a medieval royal castle and a deserted medieval town inside two hundred metres of each other is a lot of history for a village this small.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Ballintober Castle from the road The castle sits on the edge of the village. There is no internal access - it is privately owned and considered too dilapidated to enter - so the walk is the approach: along the road and the field edge to take in the scale of the curtain wall and the corner towers. The deserted medieval town the diggers found lies under the ground around you. Bring boots; the ground is rough and often wet.

Short, on the village edgedistance

20-30 minutestime

St Bride's church and well The church, the graveyard with the 1634 O'Conor Don mausoleum, and Tobar Bríde, the holy well that gave the village its name. A short, flat wander that ties the castle to the older religious site it stands beside.

Village centredistance

20 minutestime

Suck Valley Way Ballintober is one of the nine villages on the Suck Valley Way, a 105km circular trail that follows the River Suck through Roscommon and Galway on quiet roads, field paths and riverbank. You can pick up a section here for an afternoon or commit to the full loop from Ballygar. Pleasant rather than dramatic - lowland river country, lakes, drainage channels and woods.

Section of a 105 km loopdistance

Half a day to several daystime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Long light returns to the Suck valley and the ground starts to dry out for the castle walk. The fieldschool has not arrived yet and the village is at its quietest.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The best months to pair Ballintober with Clonalis House, which only opens for tours from late June to the end of August. The American fieldschool digs the castle through July - worth knowing if you hoped to have the field to yourself.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Clear, cool walking weather on the Suck Valley Way and good light on the grey castle walls. Clonalis tours wind down at the start of September.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and a lot of mud around the castle and the riverbank paths. Clonalis is closed. Garvey's and St Bride's keep going, but there is little reason to make the trip in deep winter.

◐ 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.

Trying to get inside the castle

It is privately owned by the O'Conors and closed to the public on safety grounds - the walls are too dilapidated to let people in. Do not climb the fences or the ruin. You see it from the road and the field edge, and at that scale that is genuinely enough.

Ballintober as a full day out

It is a village of two hundred people with a castle, a church, a well and one pub. That is a half-hour stop, not a day. Build the day around Castlerea, Clonalis House and a stretch of the Suck Valley Way, and let Ballintober be the high point in the middle of it.

Confusing it with Ballintubber Abbey in Mayo

Different place. The Ballintubber with the thirteenth-century abbey, 'the abbey that refused to die', is in Co. Mayo. This Ballintober is in Roscommon and the headline act is the O'Conor castle. Easy to mix up when you are booking.

Getting there.

By car

Ballintober is on the R367, the minor road that runs northeast off the N60 Roscommon-Castlerea road towards Ballymoe. About 6 km from Castlerea and roughly 25 km from Roscommon town. The castle is signposted in the village.

By bus

No regular service through the village itself. Castlerea, 6 km away, is the nearest town with bus connections. Local Link covers parts of rural Roscommon - check timetables before relying on it. Realistically you need a car or a taxi from Castlerea.

By train

Castlerea station, 6 km away, is on the Dublin Heuston to Westport/Ballina line, with several trains a day each way. From the station you still need a car or taxi the last few kilometres to Ballintober.