Liscarroll's great enclosure castle shares the village's history with nineteenth-century local tradition and the Barrett family's work for animal welfare.
Illustration, Surviving western curtain wall and round towers of Liscarroll Castle
⊕Recorded locationLiscarroll52.25857° N · 8.80354° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Lios Cearúill· Irish · main form · validated name
Liscarroll· English · main form
Place & story
A castle surrounding an open court
Liscarroll Castle is an enclosure castle: a substantial curtain wall and towers surround an open inner court. Built of limestone, it has circular corner towers and a central gate tower flanked by two D-shaped towers. The gateway retained the fittings for a portcullis and other defences, including murder holes and narrow windows. A surrounding moat added protection. Its surviving walls dominate the village and preserve the outline of a medieval stronghold designed around a defended enclosure.[2]
The Barrys, the Percevals and artillery
The council study places Liscarroll's probable construction in the later thirteenth century, defending the Barrys' Buttevant lordship. It later passed to the Percevals. Sir Hardress Waller's forces captured it after a bombardment in 1649; the Percevals regained possession and retained the castle into the twentieth century.[3]
Folklore & tradition
The well that took sixteen seconds
An anonymous visitor's account published in the Illustrated Dublin Journal in February 1862 recorded a tradition about an exceptionally deep well near Liscarroll. The story claimed that a stone dropped into it took sixteen seconds to reach the water. The writer presented this explicitly as local tradition. The same account mentioned blocked underground passages near the castle. Together, these details preserve the nineteenth-century fascination with hidden depths around a fortress whose visible walls were already ruins.[4]
People & connections
The Barrett family's animal refuge
The Donkey Sanctuary developed from the Barrett family's earlier animal-welfare work. At the opening of a new walkway in November 2013, President Michael D. Higgins recalled Garrett Barrett's establishment of an animal haven called the Restfield in 1964. His son Paddy founded the Donkey Sanctuary in 1987 with support from Elisabeth Svendsen's Devon organisation. By the presidential visit, the sanctuary was caring for more than 1,100 donkeys and mules. Its veterinary and educational work added a new, very different institution to Liscarroll's landscape.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Liscarroll — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Liscarroll, Cork — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Liscarroll, Cork — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Liscarroll, Cork — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Liscarroll, Cork
Published census settlement populations
249people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames