placenamesBallylickey
Béal Átha Leice
Ballylickey was the home and working landscape of botanist Ellen Hutchins, whose collections drew visiting naturalists to Bantry Bay.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Béal Átha Leice · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballylickey · English · main form
Place & story
Ellen Hutchins’s botanical work
Ellen Hutchins studied the plants of Bantry Bay from her home at Ballylickey, concentrating on seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts. Between 1805 and 1812 she collected specimens and corresponded with botanists including James Townsend Mackay and Dawson Turner. Her discoveries entered their published scientific works, while her watercolour drawings supplied detailed illustrations. The surviving letters, specimens and drawings preserve the work of a naturalist whose field of study was closely tied to the shores around her home. [2]
Visiting botanists in 1809
Lewis Dillwyn’s diary records a visit to the Hutchins household in July 1809 with fellow naturalists Joseph Woods and William Leach. They examined Ellen’s carefully arranged seaweed collections and sailed with her brother Sam to Whiddy Island, where Dillwyn gathered marine algae. Back at Ballylickey, the visitors continued studying specimens late into the evening. His account shows the house functioning as a meeting place for practical botanical research as well as family hospitality. [3]
Seaview House
Seaview House represents a later chapter in Ballylickey’s country-house history. Built in 1906 for Mr Hurst, it rises through three storeys, with projecting canted bays and decorative gablets. Its conversion to a hotel brought extensive additions, but the architectural inventory records surviving sash windows, the original entrance door and interior fittings. The scale of the house and its garden setting distinguish it from the smaller roadside buildings of the settlement. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Cork
- Barony
- Bantry
- Civil parish
- Kilmocomoge
- Coordinates
- 51.72061, -9.44726 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 8345 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballylickey. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- About This Site: Ellen Hutchins’s life and botanical work · Ellen Hutchins Festival team
- The Time & The Place: Lewis Dillwyn’s diary, July 1809 · Lewis Dillwyn, 1809 diary extracts; Ellen Hutchins Festival team
- Seaview House Hotel, architectural inventory 20910516 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Bridge at Ballylickey, County Cork illustration: based on a Bridge at Ballylickey by Pam Brophy. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.