Ballincollig Castle is not your wait in a line, fully restored, pay admission to enter type of castle. It is a small, authentic, Norman fortification whose ruins sit watchful over the Maglin Valley in Cork. Even getting to the castle is an adventure, especially on a wet day in April. There are no signposts to this castle. You earn your way through mucky fields and winding laneways. A rusty bike, some Irish bunnies in said fields and animal footprints were spotted on the expedition to the castle. (I think a dog made the footprints. My kids surmised about a giant Easter Bunny.)
It’s windy up there on the best of days and today the castle was a cacophony of strange howls and eerie banshee-like shrieks, invoking the spirits of the past.
The castle was constructed in the 13th century and is a reminder of a different time in Ireland when Knights and Lords representing an invading country ruled the land. History has not been kind to this little castle and it is now nestled in to the grey sky in a state of disrepair, where teenagers come on the weekends to sneak a tin of beer and escape the glare of their parents.
A true, authentic Irish castle if ever there was one!
Wandering Teacher 