After having a wander through the Bunratty Folk Park, we walked to the castle. The castle is on the edge of the folk park and just beyond a small grove of trees that separated it. Bunratty Castle is a good example of an Irish castle, known as a tower house. In the past, Ireland's lands were owned by many different wealthy families. Sometimes, fights would break out against neighbouring families, so these towers were built for protection and to show the status of the occupants.
Bunratty Castle was built in the 15th century along the river Shannon. This position on the river meant that it was a prime location, and the English had a fortress here to protect the area against attacks by the Irish. I saw a good view of the river from the top of the castle.
The castle was extremely busy with large tour groups when we arrived, and with such a small space, we did have difficulty maneouvering. The spiral staircases were also particularly difficult as they are narrow and can only allow movement in one direction. We had to wait awhile for the large groups to leave an area before we could explore it ourselves. Also, the castle may look imposing on the outside, but in reality, the rooms of the castle are small.
Our first room was the Main Guard, and this was the dining area of the soldiers. Above this is the Great Hall, which was the dining room of the Earl of the castle and is a much larger room with a wooden vaulted ceiling. This is the largest room, and it attracted the large tour groups, so I did not get a good photograph of it.
The Earl's bedroom was the next room, and it had a large poster bed in it, and this looked like it filled the room.
We saw other private apartments as well.
The next room was the kitchen, and it also held a lot of items used for cooking - pots, pans, meat, and herbs.
We also saw the sleeping quarters for the servants, which included a modest bed in a corner on the floor of one of the rooms.
The last room we visited was the chapel.
The interior of the castle was actually like a maze with different and unexpected rooms and stairways. We were lucky not to run into the large tour groups in these parts of the castle.
Overall, this was one of the better castles that we visited on our trip, so I recommend visiting it and the folk park.
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