This is the 26th blog of our Ireland Trip, where we visited Bunratty Castle. Bunratty Castle is a large 15th century tower house in County
Clare, Ireland. Bunratty castle in Gaelic is
Caisleán Bhun Raithe, meaning "Castle at the Mouth of the Ratty." The castle is part of a large folk park called "Bunratty Village" that reconstructs a village from the period. It is located between Limerick and Ennis, and very close to the Shannon airport.
ORIGINALLY A VIKING SETTLEMENT - The
first recorded settlement at the site of what now holds Bunratty Castle
may have been a Norse settlement/trading camp. In the "Annals of the
Four Masters" the settlement was destroyed by Brian Boru in 977.
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| Bunratty Castle |
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| Tom and Rob outside Bunratty Castle |
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| One of Bunratty's towers |
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| A view at the inside of the tower |
4 CASTLES ON THE SAME SITE! - Around
1250, King Henry III of England granted the district of Tradraighe (or
Tradree) to Robert De Muscegros, who in 1251 cut down around 200 trees
in the King's wood at Cratloe to build the
first castle. These lands were later taken back by King Henry III and granted to Thomas De Clare, a descendant of Strongbow
in 1276. De Clare built the first stone structure on the site
(the
second castle). This castle was occupied from ca. 1278 to 1318 and
consisted of a large single stone tower with lime white walls. In 1353, Sir
Thomas de Rokeby led an English army to conquer the
MacCarthys.
The third castle was built at Bunratty, but once again, its
exact location is unknown. Local tradition holds that it stood at the
site where the Bunratty Castle Hotel was later constructed.
The fourth castle, the present structure, was built by the
MacNamara family after around 1425. THAT"S the castle (ruins) that we got to walk through.
At around 1500, Bunratty Castle came into the hands of the O'Briens (or O'Brians), the most powerful clan in
Munster and later Earls of Thomond.
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| A 17 Second view from the tower |
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| a residual haunt |
GHOST OR NO GHOST? We didn't find any ghosts at Bunratty Castle. However, when we went into the storeroom in the basement of the castle, we both got the sense of a stable, and work being done, things being carried, etc. There was nothing stating that it was used as a stable, but that's the residual impression it left with us.
NEXT: AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE CASTLE
This is the 26th blog of our Ireland Trip, where we visited Bunratty Castle. Bunratty Castle is a large 15th century tower house in County
Clare, Ireland. Bunratty castle in Gaelic is Caisleán Bhun Raithe, meaning "Castle at the Mouth of the Ratty." The castle is part of a large folk park called "Bunratty Village" that reconstructs a village from the period. It is located between Limerick and Ennis, and very close to the Shannon airport.
