Portumna Castle is a truly unique statement of Irish architecture built in the early 17th century, it incorporates elements of both a fortified castle and an unfortified manor house built in a Jacobean style. A renaissance influence is evidenced in the front entrance, the Tuscan style gateway that leads into the inner courtyard along with the formal gardens. However the castle still shows elements of a defensive fortification such as battlements and its square corner projecting towers. It was built between 1610 and 1617 by Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde for a total cost of £10000 and has beautiful views across Lough Derg. Burke was one of the most powerful landowners in Ireland by the 1630s and owned huge swathes of land throughout Galway. His power was such that it caused him to be resented by the Dublin Government who led a campaign to use juries to find as they saw it ‘defective titles’ and thus recover lands for the English Crown. Indeed in 1634 the Earl of Strafford held a council in the castle to wrest power from Burke but was unsuccessful in the eyes of the jury, Burke died a year later in November 1635. The castle was abandoned after an accidental fire in 1826 which gutted the internal structure of the building and left it roofless, the building has been undergoing restoration since the 1960s and the OPW (Office of Public Weorks) continues this work to the present day. Portumna Castle is a beautiful site but it should be noted that only the ground floor has been restored and is more of an exhibition space than a restoration of its heyday, though this will only improve over time.
GPS: 53.08656, -8.22086