Listowel, the capital of North Kerry, is situated on a cliff above the River Feale. The name Lios Tuathail (the fort of Tuathail) is questioned by some authorities who suggest that the name may be Lios Tuathalach (the left-handed fort).

Local legend maintains that the outlines of the fort from which the town derives its name were situated in a grove of trees to the east of Gurtinard house.

The town, in all probability, sprang up about the Norman castle of the Fitzmaurices, which still shows in the imposing ruin on the west side of the Square and which was built on this site so as to guard a ford in the River Feale. It boasts of one of the highest arches of any Irish castle.

The North Kerry plain figures prominently in Fenian Mythology: 'Cnoc an Air an cnoc so thiar' ('the hill of slaughter is this hill to the west') — so begins one of the best-known poems of the Fenian cycle in reference to Knockanore hill, the hill which dominates the northern part of this territory and overlooks the lordly mouth of the River Shannon.

'Cnoc an Air' was the scene of a legendary battle between Finn and his Knights of the Fianna and the forces of the King of the World, and within living memory quantities of blackened stones evidencing cooking pits used for cooking venison have been unearthed on the side of this hill.

This hill also saw the Danish incursions to Ireland via the Shannon estuary circa 800, and the Wild Geese leaving Limerick after the bitter treaty of 1691.

The O'Connors were hereditary chieftains of the area from the Lee ('Tra-Iee,' i.e. 'the Strand of the River Lee') to the Shannon. An altercation between father and son, the son seeking Norman aid, circa 1170, resulted in North Kerry being divided between the Norman Fitzmaurices and the old Irish O'Connors, the Fitzmaurices establishing their headquarters at Lixnaw fLeac Sna', 'the Stone for Swimming') to give their name to the Barony of Clanmaurice.

With the O'Connors holding out at Carrigafoyle ('Carraig a Phoill', 'the Rock of the Pool') in the Barony of Irraghticonnor ('Oighreacht Ui Chonchuir', 'Patrimony of the 0'Connor'). The River Feale ('Fial', a legendary beauty who died of shame when observed bathing in the river) forms the boundary between these baronies; the Norman castle at Listowel was built on the O'Connor side of the river as the other bank, the Island where the famous races are now held, was at that time subject to flooding.

With the passing of time the Normans became more Irish than the Irish themselves. Listowel was the last castle that held out against the troops of Queen Elizabeth prior to the crushing defeat of an Irish-Spanish army at Kinsale, County Cork, when the old Irish order was overthrown in one of the decisive battles of Western Europe.

Pacata Hiberma, an account written at the time of the siege, gives a vivid description of the fall of Listowel castle to the forces of Sir Charles Wilmot.

The castle was under the command of Constable Stack and it held out valiantly for some time. A shaft driven beneath the castle, with the intention of blowing it up, became flooded by a spring; a second shaft was more successful and the garrison surrendered.

Half of them were hanged forthwith and the remainder sent off to the Lord President of Munster to meet a similar fate at a later dare.

The Earl of Kerry's eldest son, a child in arms, was daubed with mud and smuggled out on the back of a peasant woman, but his hiding place was revealed by Dermod McBrodie, a priest member of the garrison, on condition that the child's life would be spared.