Bunratty Castle
Bunratty Castle ( Irish Caisleán Bhun Raite ) is a Norman castle in the center of the village of Bunratty ( Bun Raite ) in the Irish county of Clare . It is located between Limerick and Ennis near Shannon Town. The name Bun Raite means "Bend of the River Ratty".
history
At the site where Bunratty Castle was later built, a Viking trading post was around 970 .
The first wooden fortress on this site was built in 1250 by the Norman Robert de Muscegros. 20 years later, Thomas de Clare , to whom the land was granted, built a stone castle on the same site. At that time the place Bunratty already had 1000 inhabitants. Under the son Richard de Clare , the castle and the place were completely destroyed during Irish-Norman disputes in 1318. It was immediately rebuilt on the instructions of the English king. But in 1332 she fell victim to the troops of the Irish O'Briens and MacNamaras. A new building was built on the ruins 21 years later in 1353 by Sir Thomas Rokeby . Almost immediately after completion, this was also attacked and was subsequently in Irish hands.
The architecture of the now fourth building was completed by the MacNamaras in 1425, but 50 years later the castle passed into the possession of the powerful O'Brien clan from Munster .
During the War of the Three Kingdoms ( Munsters ), Barnaby O'Brien, the Earl of Thomond, allowed British parliamentary troops to land in Bunratty. The castle was then besieged by troops from Confederate Ireland and finally captured. Henry VIII of England returned the title of Earl of Thomond to the O'Brien family in gratitude for their loyalty. Their rule came to an end with the arrival of Oliver Cromwell's troops in 1646.
In 1690 all Irish nobles were expropriated and disempowered, so that the castle fell into the hands of the British government. Until 1804 it was leased to Protestants from Great Britain ( Plantation families ), who were specifically settled on large estates in Catholic Ireland. They later moved to the comfortable Bunratty House , which the Studderts family had built in 1804. The castle remained uninhabited and fell into disrepair, for example the roof collapsed at the end of the 19th century. In 1950 Lord Gort bought Bunratty Castle and had it restored to its original style with the support of the state . Bunratty Castler has been open to the public since 1960.
tourism
In the 1980s, a museum was set up in the building, showing furniture, tapestries, as well as workrooms and bedrooms from the 15th and 16th centuries. The castle's former banquet and audience hall ( Great Hall ) can be rented for special occasions. Various traditional Irish farmhouses and townhouses have been built around the castle to give tourists a nostalgic flair. In some cases, buildings in other locations or locations were demolished and rebuilt in Bunratty Folk Park . Even entire historic village streets with shops, blacksmiths, inns and a school building were created. One of the buildings previously stood on the tarmac at Shannon Airport . Traditional Irish crafts are presented and also practiced on site.
Touristy Bunratty Castle is successful at the beginning of the 21st century, in particular because many Americans the nearby city of Limerick visit after the well-selling autobiography Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt has aroused the interest in this region. However, the popularity of Bunratty Castle and the open-air museum lags far behind that of other Irish castles such as Blarney Castle .
Web links
- Bunratty Castle to Shannon Heritage (English)
- Bunratty Castle Medieval Collection (English)
Coordinates: 52 ° 41 ′ 48 " N , 8 ° 48 ′ 42.5" W.