Portumna Castle

Portumna was built around 1618 for Richard Burke, fourth Earl of Clanricarde, and it marks a transition: a symmetrical Jacobean house with large mullioned windows and formal gardens, but still with corner towers, gun loops and a defended forecourt, built at a moment when Irish landowners were beginning to prefer comfort to defence without quite trusting it yet. It cost around ten thousand pounds, an enormous sum. A fire in 1826 gutted it and the family moved out; it stood as a roofless shell for over a century and a half. The Office of Public Works has been restoring it in stages since the 1970s - the ground floor and roof are done and open, the upper floors remain shells. Outside, the seventeenth-century walled kitchen garden has been replanted with period varieties and there are formal geometric gardens to the front. It stands beside Lough Derg with a forest park adjoining.

History

The house was built in the early 17th century by Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde, Lord President of Connaught, and in its day it was without equal in Ireland for style and grandeur. It was built in the Renaissance manner long established in Italy and France but still rare in Ireland and England (Wikipedia, Portumna Castle).

Highlights

• The Jacobean front - symmetrical, mullioned, and still defended at the corners.
• The restored ground floor - roofed and open, with the upper floors still shells.
• The kitchen garden - the seventeenth-century walled garden, replanted.
• The formal gardens - geometric planting in front of the house.

When to go

April to September; it closes for winter. The gardens are best from June. An hour or two covers the house and gardens together.

Before you go

Only the ground floor is restored - the upper storeys are open shells, which surprises visitors expecting furnished rooms. Seasonal opening. Ticketed.

Nearby

Portumna Forest Park and Lough Derg are adjacent; Birr Castle is east.