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Castle · Portumna

Portumna Castle

Where the Shannon widens into Lough Derg, the Earl of Clanricarde built the grandest house in the Ireland of its day. Portumna Castle went up between about 1610 and 1617 for Richard Burke, fourth earl and Lord President of Connaught, and cost 10,000 pounds; it outshone Rathfarnham, Kanturk, Carrickfergus, Charlemont and Burncourt, and it brought the Renaissance to a country that had barely heard of it.

Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.

Co. Galway Ireland, Feb. 2007. Danny Burke
Co. Galway Ireland, Feb. 2007. Danny Burke
No machine-readable author provided. Bogman assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

Portumna Castle, Portumna Castle and Gardens, Portumna Friary on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.

A Renaissance idea in stone

The Burkes were de Burgos, Norman by descent, and the earl who built here also built Somerhill House at Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The style had been common in Italy and France for a century but was rare in Ireland or England: strictly, the Renaissance details are the doorcase of the front entrance and the Tuscan gateway of the innermost courtyard, but the whole symmetrical layout, house and courtyards in line, is a Renaissance idea. The abbey lies to the east, and the lake shore a few minutes' walk to the south.

Visiting

The castle stands in its gardens between the town and the lake, with the forest park beyond; the model on this page pins the castle, the gardens and the abbey. Portumna's Getting here page has the buses and car parks.

Questions people ask

When was Portumna Castle built?
Between about 1610 and 1617, by Richard Burke, fourth Earl of Clanricarde, at a cost of 10,000 pounds.
Why is Portumna Castle important?
It was without equal in Ireland in its day and one of the first houses in the country built on Renaissance ideas of symmetry, a century after Italy and France.
Where is Portumna Castle?
On the edge of Portumna near the shore of Lough Derg, where the Shannon enters the lake, with the abbey to the east.

Written from Wikipedia, "Portumna Castle" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.