Portumna Castle

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Portumna Castle
Entrance to Portumna Castle

Portumna Castle ( Irish Caisleán Phort Omna ) is a strong house in Portumna in Irish County Galway . Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde , had it built in the early 17th century. The castle is located on Lough Derg near the mouth of the Shannon . To the east of this is the Portumna Monastery . The castle is a national monument .

history

When completed, Portumna Castle was unparalleled in Ireland in style, grandeur and rank , outpacing castles such as Rathfarnham Castle , Kanturk , Carrickfergus Castle , Charlemont Fort and Burncourt Castle . Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde , Lord President of Connaught of the De Burgo family of Norman descent had it built. Construction of the castle dragged on from around 1610 to 1617 and cost £ 10,000. The earl was a manor house , Somerhill House in Royal Tunbridge Wells in the English county of Kent build.

After a fire in 1826, the castle was abandoned by the owners. The Office of Public Works had the huge, multi-pass chimneys rebuilt.

description

Portumna Castle was built in the Renaissance style, which had dominated Italy and France for over a century but was not typically found in England or Ireland at that time. The Renaissance details on the facade are strictly limited to the door frame of the entrance door and the Tuscan entrance path to the courtyard, but the entire structure is an expression of the ideas of the Renaissance. The castle is built symmetrically and has three floors above a basement and protruding corner towers with a square floor plan. It covers an area of ​​29.7 meters × 21.2 meters and the corner towers have a side length of 6.5 meters and are provided with loopholes . A central 3 meter wide corridor runs lengthways from top to bottom and is flanked by stone walls in which there are numerous recesses and open chimneys.

There are a number of enclosed gardens, torlodges, gate pillars and a courtyard on the site.

swell

Web links

Commons : Portumna Castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 5 ′ 21.1 ″  N , 8 ° 13 ′ 8 ″  W.