The 16th century castle at Carrigacunna was the seat of the Nagle family.
For 400 years the Nagle family, of Norman origin, had exerted great
influence over this part of the Blackwater valley. They held the castle
at Carrigacunna in addition to castles at nearby Monanimy, Shanagh
and Ballynamona. The mountain range stretching from Fermoy to Mallow on
the southernside of the River Blackwater, up behind Carrigacunna Castle, bears
the Nagle name. Sir Richard Nagle, educated by the Jesuits, became Attorney
General to James II in 1686, and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He
pursued a policy of restoring the Catholic gentry to their estates with such great
ardour that he was forced into exile with James II after the Jacobite defeat at the
Battle of the Boyne in 1692 and his estates were forfeited. It is said the king spent
a night at Carrigacunna Castle either on his way to the Boyne or immediately after
it.
Over the next 100 years the castle passed through numerous hands and by 1771
had become unoccupied with, most likely, the early-Georgian house becoming the
homestead on the estate.
Around circa 1814 Carrigacunna Castle became the property of a Henry Balwin
Foott, who built the late-Georgian Manor House, circa 1826. The Foott family
remained at Carrigacunna Castle for a little over 100 years.