BUNRATTY
CASTLE & FOLF
PARK
Medieval Life and Times in County Clare
Bunratty
Castle and its Folk Park, with one of the best preserved single
square castle keeps in Ireland dating
from around 1425, surrounded by a walled-in village
of cottages, farm houses and shops is in a sense a medieval theme park
without the rides, but with a real history. The castle was a stronghold
of the O’Brien clan, later the Earls of Thomond and North
Munster who ruled much of western Ireland. The main block of the castle
which
faces the road to Limerick from the west
consists
of three floors, each of a single great hall
with narrow spiral stairs in the corners, now used for one way up and
another way down, with the visitors to this very
popular attracting squeezing in the tight confines. The castle was restored
in 1954 and decorated with original 15th and 16th Century furniture to
represent the time when the Great
Earl would have held court (see Hunt
Museum Limerick). A wooden
stairway has replaced what would have once been a drawbridge with cautions
about watching over your
children.
The main Guard Hall on the entrance floor is and used for the famous
Bunratty
Medieval
Banquets, 
held
twice nightly throughout the year. Above is the Great Hall where the
Earls of Thomond
might have handed out weighty judgments. A standard displays the family’s
coat of arms among the French and Flemish tapestries. On the highest
floors as was common in medieval keep construction are the lord's chambers.
The North Solar is perhaps the most interesting room with original
wood paneling from the 1400s, lamps in the form of mythical creatures,
and
an ornate table said to have been salvaged from the wreck of a ship
of the line of the Spanish Armada which met its disastrous fate on
the rocky
shoals off Northern Ireland.
The
Folk Park at Bunratty Castle is a collection of about 30 buildings
in the
form of a complete
village as it might have existed a hundred
years ago, with buildings from late medieval through Georgian and Victorian
in a living reconstruction of the environment of rural Ireland. A central
village street is complete with printworks, schoolhouse, blacksmith,
grocer and hardware, with houses among the green treed walks from farmhouses,
to fisherman’s house from North Kerry and the modest mansions of
minor 19th Century gentry. 
The Bunratty Corn Barn, once a farmyard building
is now the venue for the Bunratty Irish Nights, a rousing entertainment
of Irish dance and music complimented by a family style dinner of home
cooked Irish food and wine. The Irish Nights are held April to October.
If you can make it to the castle events, local musicians also drop in
to
the pub at the park's MacNamara’s
Hotel and Bar pub. The hotel is only a part of the folk park’s
village with no rooms, but the bar is fully licensed and can be entered
from
the street after hours. Or next door is Bunratty's Durty Nellys, a landmark
village pub since 1620.
Visiting Bunratty Castle
Entrance to Bunratty Castle is only with admission through the folk park. Reservation for seating tickets at the Bunratty Medieval Banquets with players in period costumes and more music and merriment or the Irish Dance Nights need to be arranged at the reception desk in the folk park entrance building or can be made online. If only in the area for a sort time reservations should be made in advance, especially in busy summer months. Entrance fee to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is 10 euro, the banquets are about 60 euro for the Medieval and 50 euro for the Irish Nights. The castle's last entrance is at 4pm.
Though
the Folk Park’s
MacNamara hotel is only for display, the Bunratty
Castle Hotel and Spa, an entirely separate property of upscale
comfort is located directly across the Bunratty Green from the castle,
next to the tourist friendly Creamery Bar pub and restaurant, a former
dairy now a popular halfway rest stop from Galway to Kerry. Also on the
Bunratty Green across from the castle is the Blarney Woolen Mills outlet
center. For an even more luxurious stay with the flavor of noble’s
lifestyle nearby, Dromoland
Castle Hotel is fifteen minutes to the west of Bunratty,
with more O’Brien history. Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is only
5 miles from Shannon Airport and 8 miles east of Limerick. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Bunratty
Castle & Folk Park
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SEE ALSO:
DUNGUAIRE
CASTLE - MEDIEVAL BANQUETS
THE ROCK OF CASHEL - TIPPERARY
KING
JOHN’S
CASTLE - LIMERICK
DUBLIN
- THE BOOK OF KELLS
