Ballyportry is one of the few Gaelic tower houses in Clare to come through the upheavals of the 17th century more or less intact, and the only way to see inside it is to book it. The castle is a private exclusive let: you rent the whole thing, sleeping up to eight across six bedrooms, for a minimum of three nights. There are no tours, no café, no day visits. If that rules you out, it is still worth a slow look from the road near Corofin – an O’Brien tower standing on a rocky outcrop in the Burren, ringed by a 17th-century bawn wall with circular corner turrets.
The castle and its survival
The O’Briens, who held most of Clare through the medieval period, raised Ballyportry around 1530, and it is usually sold as a 500-year-old castle, which is about right. What makes it unusual is that it survived. When the Gaelic aristocracy declined after the 17th century and most tower houses were left to fall, Ballyportry stayed standing and lived in. The bawn wall around it – rubble stone with gunloop slits and two circular turrets set diagonally opposite each other – went up around 1625.
The restoration that saved the building was the work of architect Bob Brown, who took it on in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The national heritage record still rates it as a structure of archaeological, architectural, artistic and social interest, and notes the remains of old wall paintings inside. There is also a Sheela-na-gig at Ballyportry, one of the weathered carved figures found on a scatter of medieval Irish buildings.
Staying there
Two big rooms anchor the place: a vaulted Great Hall at the top with an open fire, and a high kitchen-living room at ground level that you reach by walking up an incline to the gated bawn entrance and through a thick timber door. Six bedrooms sleep eight. The bathrooms are finished in Liscannor stone, the dark local flagstone; heating is underfloor, with log stoves for the evenings, and the kitchen has a gas hob and the usual self-catering kit.
The catch is the stairs. Circulation is by a curving medieval stone staircase, narrow and winding, and it genuinely doesn’t suit small children or anyone with limited mobility. If that applies to your group, weigh it before booking a castle over a level rental.
Getting there
Ballyportry is signposted off the back roads near Corofin in North Clare, and ‘near’ is the operative word: this is deep Burren countryside, a long way from a bus stop or a town of any size, so you will want a car. Parking on site is free. Corofin village, on the River Fergus, is the closest place for supplies. Aillwee Cave and the open Burren limestone are close by, and the Cliffs of Moher are about a 45-minute drive west.
One practical note before you book: the old ballyportry.ie website is dead and the domain is up for sale, so ignore it. The castle has listed through Discover Ireland and the usual exclusive-let sites, and the direct contact number is +353 87 205 9957. Book well ahead – a single three-night-minimum let means dates go quickly, the holidays first.