Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes a number of ringfort, enclosure and tower house sites in the townlands of Ballysteen, Beagh, Ballinvoher and Issane.[2] Beagh Castle, an outpost fortification built in the 13th century by the FitzGerald family,[3] is located close to Ballysteen village.[4] Ballysteen House, an 18th-century country house,[5] is reputedly built on the site of the former Ballysteen Castle.[6] The Catholic church in Ballysteen, which dates to 1861,[7] is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick.[8] The ruins of a 15th or 16th-century chapel and churchyard are nearby in Beagh townland.[9][10] Ballysteen's Carnegie library (constructed c. 1905) was restored in the early 21st century and is now a community and heritage centre.[11]
^Record of Monuments and Places as Established under Section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994 - County Limerick. Dublin: National Monuments and Historic Properties Service. 1997.
^Westropp, Thomas Johnson (1906). "The Ancient Castles of the County of Limerick (Central and South-Eastern Baronies)". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature. 26: 156. JSTOR25502742.
^Westropp, Thomas Johnson (1904). "A Survey of the Ancient Churches in the County of Limerick". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature. 25: 388, 389. JSTOR25502727.
