| Ard na Caithne Smerwick |
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Ard na Caithne
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Kerry |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | Q347072 |
Ard na Caithne (Irish pronunciation: [ˈaːɾˠd̪ˠ nˠə ˈkanʲə]), meaning height of the arbutus or strawberry tree, known as Smerwick in English, in the heart of the Kerry Gaeltacht is one of the principal bays of Corca Dhuibhne. It is nestled at the foot of An Triúr Deirfiúr and Cnoc Bhréanainn, which at 952 metres (3,123 ft) is the highest mountain in the Brandon group. Bounded by the villages of Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Baile na nGall and Ard na Caithne itself, the area is what has been known as the Fíor-Ghaeltacht, or true Gaeltacht, in recent decades.
Ard na Caithne (old anglicised form Ardnaconnia) was also known in Irish as Iorras Tuaiscirt ("north peninsula") and Gall-Iorras ("peninsula of the strangers").
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Ard na Caithne has a significant place in both the history of south-west Munster and Ireland. The early Christian Gallarus Oratory and An Riasc monastic site nearby are central archeological and tourist attractions.
Dún an Óir, the "Fort of the Gold", is an Iron age Promontory fort located near the harbour. It was the site of the Siege of Smerwick in 1580.
The harbour, where Fitzmaurice's invasion force landed, was also the landfall of the returning transatlantic expedition of Sir Martin Frobisher in 1587.[1] The killing was later brought against Raleigh as one of the charges at his trial; he avoided conviction by pleading that he had to obey the orders of his superior officer.[2]
In the nearby Caisleán Feiritéar lived the famous 17th-century poet and Hiberno-Norman lord Piaras Feiritéar. Feiritéar's life was anything but uninteresting and in both his poetry and actions he won enormous support and honour from his community. He was executed at the hands of the Cromwellians in Killarney in 1653, following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His death was known in the region, and he remains a folk hero in the local community today.