Slí An tSeana Bhóthair 2.5km Loop Walk

The walk begins at the corner of “An Hibernian” bar. You take the lane beside the pub, a lane which is another section of the old Kerry to Cork road we already walked on the way to St. Gobnait’s Shrine. After 112 miles, you go straight through the crossroads (signposted). Continue ón for a further 3/4 mile past the houses. Having passed the final bungalow on the left, you arrive at an abandoned farmyard. The section of road around this farmyard was the site of the old village of the parish.

Dating from pre Cromwellian times (1650), it was called Béal an Ghearrtha. Like other villages of that period in Ireland, it would have had the usual mudwalled thatched cabins, some used as shops, others as tradesmen’s dwellings etc. The forge was back along the road you have just come.

The derelict overgrown farmhouse on the left was once the village tavern. Straight ahead down the road beyond the new farmhouse, was a relatively large thatched house, built by the authorities as a barrack to house bands of soldiers sent occasionally ón law enforcement duties. (This was in pre-police times). Because of its relative size vis-a-vis the village cabins, it was known locally as ‘An Dún’ or ‘The Fortress’. Each year the Proctor or Tithe collector and his soldiers would stay here in the Dún while collecting in the area. The practice of exacting tithes from Catholic tenants was detested throughout Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries. There was much agitation which later resulted in bloody confrontation. Opposition to the tithes was expressed locally in the mid 19th century when the barrack was burned down. Afterwards, it was known as the “Tigh Dóite”. The village church stood a few hundred metres beyond the Tigh Doite. It was one of the three such mass house s erected in the parish after the Cromwellian wars, when all hope of restoring Teampall Gobnatan had faded.