Bunratty Castle , Bunratty, County Clare, 15th century Bunratty Castle was purchased by Lord Gort in the 1960's and lovingly restored to its resent condition. It is used today for medieval banquets and is the central attraction in the Bunratty Folk Park , but in its heyday the castle was quite formidable. This castle is of unique design in that the front and back of the castle look exactly the same. The front of the castle, shown here, once had a great drawbridge that was lowered during the day to allow traffic in and out of the castle. A large moat surrounded the base of the castle as well.
Lower levels have narrow windows and the inset also has several arrow slits.
There is a door at the very base of the castle and this was the guards room. They would eat, sleep and keep entertained in this room as well as have primary access to invaders and inner stairs that lead to the upper floors within the castle itself. Cahir Castle , Cahir, County Tipperary Carrigaholt Castle , Carrigaholt, South County Clare, possibly 14th century Carrigaholt Castle overlooks Carrigaholt Bay just off the River Shannon. This tower is of typical square or rectangle construction and very similar to other towers of this type in Ireland. This is a larger scale tower in that it has five main floors.