Castles of Ireland

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Ireland has many castles that seem to catch your eye. Ireland is actually one of the most common places to find a castle with such a medevil past. I think you will find the castles I have mentioned below very unique.

~*~ ~Bunratty~ ~*~

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1277 brought the construction and building of the Bunratty Castle. Sir Thomas de Clare was the one with the idea to build the protective fortress in the first place. With that, a town grew up around its walls. Bunratty and the surrounding town were, sadly, nearly burnt down by the widow of the son of Sir Thomas. Bunratty was then passed from one country to the next; between the Irish and the English until around 1450 when Macon MacSioda Macnamara and his son, Sean Finn erected the present castle.

~*~ ~Kilkenny~ ~*~

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In 1171, Kilkenny castle was simply a motte castle. Built by Strongbow and destroyed by the native Irish in 1174, the castle was succeeded by William Marshal during his years in Ireland (1207-12). He planned out an extensive trapezoidal-plan enclosure of stone walls with gigantic round towers on the corners (three of which survive in differing conditions).

The original enclosure walls were very thick, almost 6 feet thick, and some of it survives on the north side. There, actually, could have been several surrounding buildings creating a "little city" in an earlier period of time. No one, however, has been able to clearly identify these, although a description of the castle, given in 1307, summarizes Kilkenny as it was at or around that date.

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