Portumna Castle

Within Portumna Demesne, some 300m N of Lough Derg. This semi-fortified Jacobean house (c. 25m E-W; c. 18m N-S), now a National Monument, was built in 1618 by Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricard; it was occupied by his successors until 1826 when it was gutted by fire. Rectangular in plan and two rooms wide, it comprises three storeys over a basement with a projecting square tower on each corner. The doorway in the N wall is accessed via two walled forecourts with gateways and a defended Tuscan doorway. Formal gardens (GA127-018001-) occupy the forecourts and the kitchen garden is to the NE. As a result of a major conservation project, undertaken by the Office of Public Works between 1989 and 1995, the house has been re-roofed and floored and all the windows have been reinstated. The latter comprise single lights, and two- and three-light transom and mullioned windows. String courses are visible between the 2nd and 3rd floors of the towers and below the base of the parapet. While the house retains some defensive features, such as the machicolation over the doorway at the 2nd-floor level and shot holes in the projecting towers, it marks the transition from the fortified castles of the medieval period to the country houses of the 18th and 19th centuries. As such it is one of the most important 17th-century houses in Ireland (www.buildingsofireland.ie Reg. No. 30343048, accessed 8 September 2016). The ground floor is now open to the public. Some 370m to SSE is the site of Black Castle (GA127-020----), the earlier O'Madden stronghold (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 402) and there is a friary (GA127-019----) c. 250m to ESE. (Harbison 1975, 99; Bence-Jones 1978, 233-4)