Bunratty Castle is a 15th-century medieval tower house located in County Clare, between Limerick and Shannon.
The current version of Bunratty Castle was built by the powerful MacNamara family around 1425.
Like most of the Irish castles, Bunratty Castle has an incredibly violent, bloody, and turbulent history.
The strategic importance of its location—guarding the access point where the Ralty River meets the Shannon Estuary.
Over the centuries, it passed through several hands, most notably the O'Brien clan, before falling into ruin and being heavily restored in the 1950s.
Nowadays the castle is a designated National Monument protected under Irish law.
Bunratty is one of the few castles in Ireland that feature nightly medieval dinner banquets with live entertainments.