Today was our last day in Ireland. As such, I wanted something to do that was near the airport. The answer was Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. We’ve actually driven by this multiple times, during our travels up and down the coast and our long drives to swap rental cars — so it was nice to finally be able to stop.
Bunratty is a 15th century castle, fully restored to its formal glory. It’s situated inside a large historical park along the lines of Sturbridge Village or Strawbery Banke, but for 19th-century Ireland. They’ve moved and restored many different kinds of houses and other buildings here from different areas, including a residence and a “Main Street” with several different kinds of shops (which looked like 19th-century shops, but inside actually sold modern merchandise of a similar type). The centerpiece is the castle itself, where you can explore many of the rooms.
One thing I noticed, walking around, is that there were McNamaras everywhere. Apparently they were one of the main clans in this area, and actually built the castle (though it was soon taken over by the scheming O’Briens). My grandmother was a McNamara, so it added some fun for us to imagine that the castle could have been built by our distant ancestors. In addition to the castle itself, we saw a McNamara farmhouse and a MacNamara pub.
The park was a pleasant place to stroll around for a couple of hours. In addition to the buildings there were wooded walks and various animals — peacocks, chickens, ponies, pigs, Irish wolfhounds — which kept the girls busy for a while. But the main event was in the evening, when we’d signed up for the medieval banquet, held in the castle itself after hours. We enjoyed a four-course meal with mead and wine, and entertainment. The entertainers (who were also our waiters) were period actors and wonderful singers. (Apparently the banquet was set during the O’Brien era, because the reenactors made reference to their livestock being stolen by those dastardly McNamaras.). It was a nice way to cap off our travels.
We stayed overnight in nearby Ennis, yet another charming little town with a vibrant town center — in this case, one that seemed to be mostly locals. We didn’t have a chance to do much there, but it provided a nice cafe for us to grab some breakfast before heading for the airport.
Our flight home the next day was pretty uneventful, except for my suitcase being the VERY LAST ONE to emerge at baggage claim. This caused us to miss the bus we’d hoped to catch by 5 minutes, and necessitated standing in the hot sun in 90+ degree weather waiting for the next one, which was late. Before that we’d been making great time — the Ireland airports have US Customs set up within them somehow, so you can go through before your flight and then not have any delay when arriving back in the US. But we eventually made it back to NH, and managed to drive home without accidentally straying onto the left side of the road.
