This may not seem a very pre-possessing mountain, but once one get to know its history, it begins to grow in stature. The stronghold of the O'Byrnes of Gabhal Raghnaill, a junior branch of the clan, was on the northern slope of Ballinacor (‘Baile na Corra’: the homestead of the slope). It was especially during the time of Fiach McHugh O’Byrne, in the latter part of the 16th century, that Gaelic resistance to the English invader was at its height – and its most successful – in this mountainous area around Glenmalure. Fiach won a resounding victory over Lord Grey in Glenmalure in 1580, although it is here, too, that he was finally defeated and slain by Lord Russell in 1597. If you wish to learn more about the O’Byrnes of Ballinacor, I would suggest a very informative article by Dr Harry Long of Trinity College, which you will find reproduced on http://homepage.eircom.net/~nobyrne/Settlement_in_Feagh_OByrne_Ballinacor.htm

It seems that the word ‘baile’ in Ballinacor refers, not to a village in our modern understanding, but to a ‘rath’ kind of settlement of wooden structures surrounded by protected earthen ramparts. What remains of two of the original three enclosures can be seen today, not far from the Georgian residence known as Ballinacor House. From here the O’Byrnes could control the entrance to Glenmalure and the Avonbeg River valley down to Greenan and beyond.

As far as the summit of this flat mountain is concerned, there is a small cairn that it is easy to miss at T 1170 8648 A (see photo, with Croaghanmoira rising in the background). My own best guess before I stumbled over this, however, was a point at T 1173 8653 B. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/3530/

This is not the summit cairn on Ballinacor, although it has far more the appearance of that than the modest pile of stones that purports to mark the top, a short distance above it to the north. It can be found at T 1172 8636 C. I have no idea what its significance may be. A boundary marker, perhaps, or the whim of idle hands?

In the ‘Leabhar Branach’, the late medieval work of bardic verse that sings the praises of the O’Byrnes, Ballinacor is called a “hunter’s haven”, and even today wildlife abounds on and around this mountain. I don’t think I have ever seen in one place such numbers of pheasant lower down or of grouse above. Here too, one warm day, I approached what I thought was an old branch sticking up out of the heather, when all of a sudden it became the antlers of a big stag that rose up from a hollow a few metres in front of me where he had been sunning himself. A look of surprise and disdain, and he was gone! Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/3531/

Those wishing to attempt Ballinacor should read milo's comments regarding access under the entry for Croaghanmoira. The photo shows Ballinacor viewed from Croaghanmoira, with the Irish Sea just visible in the distance. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/473/