Chapter 01
A stronghold at the crossing
Belvelly’s published history begins with the Anglo-Norman Hodnett family and a strategic ford between Great Island and the mainland.
Sources disagree on a precise construction date. What remains legible is the tower’s purpose: command of a narrow crossing within Cork Harbour.
Chapter 02
Taken at the ford
In 1329, the castle’s own account records a siege by the de Barrys and their Roche allies.
The capture placed the stronghold within a changing field of local power. It later became associated with the Barrymore name.
Chapter 03
Power written into stone
Ownership shifted with the political and military fortunes of Ireland.
Sir Walter Raleigh acquired the property in 1581; surviving correspondence described it as broken down. Sir Peter Courthope rented Belvelly from 1636 and is credited with repairs, a roof and battlements. During the Confederate Wars it garrisoned troops under Roger Boyle.
Chapter 04
Weather, ivy, memory
By the nineteenth century, Belvelly stood as a roofless ruin.
Generations passed the familiar tower while weather and vegetation moved through its interior. In these years, stories gathered around the building alongside the documented record.
Enter the folklore collection
Chapter 05
Called into service
During Ireland’s Emergency, from 1939 to 1945, the Irish Army occupied the castle.
The tower was modified as a defensive position. When that period ended, Belvelly returned to its long quiet at the crossing.
Chapter 06
To imagine a home
Garry and Anne Wilson acquired Belvelly in 2016 and chose to take on the scale of its rescue.
The ambition was not merely to arrest decay, but to return the old tower to use as an enduring family home.
Chapter 07
The work of renewal
Structure, masonry and modern life had to be resolved together.
Ring beams stabilised the tower. Thousands of stones were repaired, numbered and reassembled. The battlements returned, while new heating, joinery, windows and a dramatic staircase made habitation possible.
Read the full restoration
Chapter 08
A tree above the battlements
In September 2018, Orla de Brí’s Quiet Listening was installed on the roof.
Its dark-green figure looks towards a five-metre tree covered in gold leaf, remembering the tree that had once grown within the ruin and holding nature, ancestors and renewal in conversation.
Discover Quiet Listening
Chapter 09
A living story
Belvelly is inhabited again—an old place carried forward rather than fixed behind glass.
Today it is the Wilson family’s private residence. Its public story continues through responsible stewardship, art and a connection with the communities around Great Island.
