Ireland: Day 4 (Bunratty Castle and Folk Park)


Today we leave Limerick for Galway, where we will stay for 2 nights. However, before we reach our final destination for the day we will have to make two important stops. The first one is about 20 minutes away from Limerick and can easily be seen from the motorway. It is the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park.

We paid the entrance fee and was handed a pamphlet letting us know what we are seeing. I don't know, nor did we asked, if they have a guided tour available. Given the fact that there's barely just the two of us there at that time, I don't know if they would provide a private guided tour. No worries, the pamphlet was very helpful. In fact, I'm using it right now to blog about it. The descriptions here are going to come from the pamphlet they were handing out with every paid entry.

The present castle, the last of a series on the same site was built around 1425. During the 16the and 7th century it was an important stronghold of the O'Briens - kings and later earls of Thomond or North Munster. The main block has three floors, each consisting of a single great room or hall. The four towers have six stories each and the castle is entered by a drawbridge to the main guard.

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For me, there wasn't much to photograph inside the castle. They host a Medieval dinner, I guess similar to the ones you get in Vegas at Excalibur's Tournament of Kings dinner and show (which by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed, just saying), so they want you out at a particular time so they can set up for the dinner.

While the castle was incredible given the age, I was more entertained by the reconstruction of the homes and environment of Ireland over a century ago. This is the folk park part. I think back here, we use heritage park to describe this sort of place.

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Cashen Fisherman's House - a simple two-bedroom home of North Kerry salmon fisherman. Much of the timber would have been salvaged from the sea. The floor is of rammed clay.

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The blacksmith's forge - the blacksmith made tools for many other craftsworkers and tradesmen.

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Loop Head House- the house of a fishing-farming family in West Clare. The thatch is roped down to protect against the Atlantic gales.

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Village Street comprises of houses and shops typical of 19th century urban Irish buildings.

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Travelers wagon - the horse drawn wagon was the main type of transport used in the past by the Irish ethnic group known as Travellers.

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The decors are still up when we visited on January 15.

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It is a very enjoyable tour. As with all our stops here, we never got to see everything that it has to offer. On the way out, the quick look at the Gift Shop turned into a half hour of shopping. They carried the things we wanted to get for us and for our family and friends.

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Comments

  1. So pretty! I love that blue cottage.

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  2. Historical place . It's nice . Please tell something about my capture on my blog.

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  3. Hello, wonderful tour and photos. I love the castle. The cottages are cute. Happy Friday, enjoy your day and weekend!

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  4. Little wagon is darling.
    Coffee is on

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  5. Some neat photos, part of my ancestry is Irish so I have a particular interest in it, nice to see the tapestries there and all the rooms in their designated purposes.

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  6. Beautiful shots of the castle and all ~ such history ~

    Happy Day to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  7. Very nice photos! We stopped here too, but didn't spend much time. We did eat lunch at Durty Nellies though and it was quite the experience.

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