Portumna Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Overlooking Lough Derg near the mouth of the Shannon, Portumna Castle was built around 1618 for Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde, and his wife Frances Walsingham, widow of the Earl of Essex. A rectangular three-storey mansion flanked by square towers, it marks the transition in Ireland between the medieval tower house and the country residence: mullioned and transomed windows, a gateway with machicolations, but also a symmetrical layout inspired by the Renaissance. The seat of the Earls and later Marquesses of Clanricarde for two centuries, it was devastated by a fire in 1826 and remained an empty shell until its acquisition by the State in 1968. Restored by the Office of Public Works, it is now open to visitors with its formal gardens and walled kitchen garden.