Bunratty
Sometime in the first half of the thirteenth century Robert Muscegros,
probably the son of Richard Muscegros (d.1228+) and Alice Dive,
acquired
Bunratty. In 1251 Robert cut down some 200 trees from the king's
wood of Cratloe, just a mile east of Bunratty. This was probably
used for building operations, though whether for constructing a wooden
castle or defending a stone tower is unknown. On 23 February
1253, Robert and his heirs were granted by Henry III (d.1272) a yearly fair at Bunratty and free warren in all his lands of Tradery and Ockormock outside of the king's forest as well as the right to make a town on their land of Clare (Clarin)
in Ireland. Nothing further is known of Robert's doings at
Bunratty and it is assumed he left Ireland after his likely defeat
in 1257 when Tadc O'Brian, the son of King Donnchad Cairprech of
Thomond (d.1268), attacked the Norman settlers in Clare. Robert
was last mentioned for certain in March 1276. However, on 23
October 1275, he had handed over his castle of Bonret in Ireland to the king for him to ‘hold and defend against the Irish rebels' on condition that the king would:
as soon as the contention
between the king and his subjects of the lands of Ireland and the Irish
rebels is settled by peace or otherwise and the said Robert has paid
all expenses for its repair, defence, munition and custody while it is
in the king's hand, it shall be restored to him or his heirs.
The implication of this is that the castle needed repair and therefore
possibly had been ruined since 1257. Either Robert Muscegros had
soon died, leaving no near relatives to inherit, or he had simply
abandoned his claim to Bunratty, for, on 4 March 1276, King Edward I informed Justiciar Geoffrey Geneville of Ludlow that Thomas Clare (d.1287) was to have in chief the castle of Bunratty (Bonred) with Tradery cantref and the theod of Oikormok which Robert Muscegros had quitclaimed to the king.
Thomas
Clare had been in Ireland since at least 1274 for he had married Juliana
(d.1300), the daughter of the Geraldine, Maurice Fitz Maurice
(d.1287). Thomas was engaged in building Quin castle
in 1280 when he was attacked by the O'Brians and forced to flee back to
Bunratty, leaving much of his army to its fate. Bunratty was
attacked and wrecked in 1284 when Thomas was in England. On his
return in 1287 he repaired the castle and had a ditch 420' long dug
around it. He then died on 29
August 1287.
After Thomas' death the castle passed to his sons, Gilbert (d.1308)
and then Richard Clare. Richard is said to have gained a military
victory at Bunratty in 1310 or 1311 against Dermot O'Brian who was
killed. According to another source, John Crok was killed with
many others at a battle at Bonratte
on the day of the Ascension of the lord, while William Burgh was
captured there. Richard himself was killed in 1318 fighting
against the Scottish invasion of Ireland at Dysert O'Dea.
On 11 May [1318] Lord Richard
Clare was killed by his Irishmen of Thomond with 4 other knights, Lord
Thomas Lesse, Lord Henry Capella, lords James and John Canteton and
many others on Thursday morning.
After this, his unnamed widow, who later married William Birmingham (d.1332) of Athenry, is said to have burned the castle and
retreated to Limerick.
Despite this, one of Richard's inquest post mortems was actually taken
at Bunratty on 26 May 1321. This found that the castle consisted
of a large single stone tower with lime whitened walls, standing near
the river. Quite clearly this describes the current tower.
Certainly damage had recently been done to the district as it was
noted that in Bunratty and Conyhi the churches with the chapels were
‘worth nothing in these times'.
The castle
was then rebuilt and burned several times, the first being in 1325.
The castle was retaken and burned again by the Irish in
1332. It then seems to have remained derelict until the winter of
1350-51, when Justiciar Rokeby campaigned in the west of Ireland and
rebuilt Bunratty castle, while persuading settlers to reoccupy the
surrounding lands. Despite this, the fortress was taken again in
1355. For this defeat Edward III
imprisoned Thomas Fitz John
in Limerick for his part in letting the castle fall into the hands of
Murtough O'Brian. When the O'Briens submitted to
Henry VIII (d.1547) they were made earls of Thomond and in 1558 the
lord lieutenant of Ireland, Thomas Radclyffe, took the castle for
Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and gave it to Donough O'Brian. In 1646
Barnabas O'Brian allowed Lord Forbes to occupy the castle for the Long
Parliament. The result was a long siege until the Confederates
from Limerick took the castle from William Penn (1621-70), the father
of the William Penn (1644-1718) who founded Pennsylvania. The
fortress was allowed to fall into ruin in the eighteenth century, but
was restored by Lord Gort after 1954 and is now set in Bunratty folk
park.
Description
The castle consists of a rectangular hall block, 60' by 40', with 4
rectangular towers, 30' by 23', at the corners. Surprisingly,
considering the average thickness of the walls being some 6', there are
numerous stairways built into the walls. Quite likely they date
from several eras. The main entrance was at first floor level to
the north, between the two northern towers. This was set in a
wall much thicker than the rest, being some 10' thick. The tower
seems originally to have been 4 storeys high. Then, possibly as early as 1600,
the end towers were united with eliptical arches at both the north and south
sides and a new fifth floor added. This gives Bunratty castle it's
almost unique appearance, somewhat similar to Hermitage castle in Scotland. The battlements at Bunratty are all modern as too may be the uniting of the towers.
It has generally been assumed that the earthworks north-west of the present tower
marked the site of the original Bunratty castle. However, the 1959
excavations suggested that this was the remains of a seventeenth
century gun emplacement. It therefore seems that the original
castle must have been on the current site. Indeed there is
nothing implausible about the same tower house having been repeatedly
rebuilt and reused. Quin castle, only 10 miles from
Bunratty, and built by Thomas Clare (d.1287), is a somewhat larger
rectangular castle. This has walls about 110' square, with round,
40' diameter towers, at the corners. Possibly Quin in this respect merely copies the therefore older Bunratty castle.
Perhaps you would like to join me in
visiting this and other great castles of Ireland in
October with Scholarly Sojourns. Details of the trip can be
found by clicking
here.
Copyright©2017
Paul Martin Remfry