Bunratty Folk Park - Part One

I arrived in Ireland a day ahead of my American friends and so once I had checked in to the Bunratty Castle hotel and had a spot of lunch I decided to spend the afternoon at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The cottages and houses in the Folk Park are replicas of buildings from the Shannon region (Clare, Limerick and North Kerry) and all represent Irish rural life as it was in the early 1900s. The small farmhouse above is from the coastal region of south west Clare and would have been lived in by a family who earned their living from both small scale farming and fishing.

Although the family who lived here weren't well off they weren't poor either and had a reasonably comfortable lifestyle. The fire of course burns peat and all the cooking would have been done over it.

This is the parlour which also doubled up as a second bedroom.

I love this old mangle, my gran had a slightly smaller version of this in her scullery when I was a child and it wasn't there as an ornament either. Putting heavy,wet sheets through the mangle was hard work. Actually I think this must be standing back to front as the wheel to turn the mangle would be on the right not the left.

If you click and enlarge this photo you will see that the thatched roof is roped down to secure it against the roaring Atlantic gales that batter the west coast of Ireland in the winter.

Isn't this cottage a gorgeous colour? It's a Cashen fisherman's cottage and was very sparsely furnished inside. The Cashen river flows into the Shannon Estuary and was one of the best salmon fishing rivers in Ireland. The fishermen from this area often had another string to their bow too - as smugglers!

Now we come to the Castle itself. The first stone castle was built here in the mid 13th century but the castle we see today dates to the mid 1400s. Around 1820 the family who owned Bunratty Castle moved into Bunratty House which they had built in the grounds, the castle was never lived in again and it was left to become a ruin. In 1953 the now derelict castle was bought by Lord Gort who restored and furnished it in the style of the 17th century - the period when the castle was owned by the O'Briens, Earls of Thomond.

Most of my interior photos are poor as no flash photography was allowed and the rooms were either rather dark or had bright sunshine pouring in. I'm just including a few that are the best of a bad lot. Above is a lovely carved oak dower cupboard which was made around 1570 and stands in the Great Hall.

This was also in the Great Hall and is definitely worth enlarging, it's a wonderful early 16th century French woodcarving. Actually it's two that have been put together, the top one depicts a hunting scene with lords and ladies on horseback,the lower part is thought to show the story of Abraham and Isaac.

This is the Buttery - it has nothing whatever to do with butter though. The name comes from the wooden butts of beer and wine which were kept there. On the right is a hatch to the Great Hall and through here the wine and other drinks were served by the butler. Until recent times in all the great houses it was the butler who had charge of the wine cellars.
On the shelves is a collection of liquor jugs, drinking vessels and wine bottles.

You will need to click and enlarge this to see properly how tortuous these spiral stone stairs are - it's the one set of steps I didn't venture onto:) They lead down into the dungeon - a pit about 15 feet deep that prisoners were thrown into. If they were lucky they got out again by being hauled up on a rope. I gather it isn't especially salubrious down there even now so in days gone by I imagine a good many prisoners died of disease or from the cold.

This is the South Solar preserved as it was when Lord and Lady Gort lived here in the 1950s. The limestone fireplace on the left is original - though original in what way I can't discover. It may mean original to the 15th century when Bunratty Castle was built or original to the 17th century improvements made by the 4th Earl.

Isn't this chandelier fabulous? There were several in various rooms all slightly different.

As with many of the rooms there was only a narrow entrance that was gated so it wasn't possible to get great angles for photos. This is the Earl's Bedchamber and the bed is quite something - a 15th century English piece with really ornate carving on the headboard and bedposts

Here we have the North Solar and taking pride of place in the centre is the Armada Table. Legend has it that this table was salvaged from a ship of the Spanish Armada which sunk off the coast of Clare in 1588 by the High Sheriff of Clare who presented it to his brother-in-law Conor O'Brien.

Although I didn't descend to the dungeon I did climb up and up and up the spiral staircases untilI reached the battlements and was rewarded with this lovely view

The gate into the courtyard of the castle - I don't know whether this is original or not but I really like it. There's a lot more of the Folk Park to see but I think this is enough for now:)