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Banemore House
A marriage announcement in the Dublin Evening Post of December 14, 1858 reminds us of the once imposing Banemore House which was situated about a quarter of a mile south of Banemore Cross on the road to Lyreacrompane. The marriage ceremony took place at Tracton Protestant Church in County Cork on Dec 7 of that year. The groom was Thomas Palmer Esq. R.N, son of the late Robert J Palmer Esquire, Banemore, Co. Kerry and the bride was Margaret Lucy, daughter of the late John E Orpen of Glebe Hill, Kanturk. Banemore House or an earlier house was on the estate of Thomas Crosbie in the early 1700s. This was the Crosbie who was suspected in having his finger in the pie when the silver bullion disappeared from the Danish ship, the Golden Lion, after it ran on to rocks in Ballyheigue Bay in 1731. He died before he had to defend his role in the escapade. By 1780 Banemore House was in the hands of the Palmer family and according to Valerie Bary, in her book, Houses of Kerry, John Palmer either enlarged the house or rebuilt it. Thomas O’Halloran was a tenant there in 1814 but by 1837 a Robert J. Palmer was living in the big house. He didn’t live long enough to attend the wedding at Tracton. Banemore House survived into the early 1900s when a Stokes family was in residence. It then fell into disrepair and today nothing remains visible on the site except a wall defining the Paupers Well. It is believed locally that
James Harrington visits the Pauper’s Well in 2020. the courtyard was used as a soup kitchen serviced from the Listowel workhouse during the famine and the well supplied water with the meagre meal. Aldwell’s General Directory of 1843-44 may give a pointer as to how the newlyweds first met. It lists the manager of the National Bank in Kanturk as a James Palmer –perhaps an uncle of the groom? This is just idle speculation of course!!!
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The Pauper’s Well, Banemore. (From the Houses of Kerry by Valerie Bary).
Remains of Tracton Church of Ireland Church, Cork.
A rent receipt from 1937 for Buckley’s cottage in Lyreacrompane.
