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Towns of Clare
Bunratty —County Clare
The historic village of Bunratty is on the N18 between Limerick City and Ennis. It is just 13kms (8mls) from Limerick and 8kms (5mls) from Shannon Airport. Bunratty is not just the most strategically placed of tourist attractions - but a place that offers all that is best in Irish hospitality. It has been doing just that for more than four hundred years, when a Papal envoy reported on the lavish reception he enjoyed in Bunratty Castle.
The village is synonymous with world famous 15th century Bunratty Castle and 19th century Bunratty Folk Park, the West of Ireland's most visited attraction. The village offers excellent shopping including Avoca Handweavers and Bunratty Village Mills / Blarney Woollen Mills Complex , great restaurants, several hotels and a number of pubs including the famous 'Durty Nellys' pub.
Bunratty Castle is one of Europe's finest. Pride of more than 100 castles built by the McNamara chieftains in 15th century Clare, it is faithfully restored and refurnished. In the shadow of the castle is Bunratty Folk Park illustrating 19th century Irish life from grand manor house to peasant dwelling and from farm activities to cobble-stone village street. Bunratty Castle is the settings for nightly Mediaeval Banquetswhile the Traditional Irish Music Nights operate nightly in the great barn in Bunratty Folk Park.
The castle commands a ford and anchorage on the Bunratty River. Restored to its former glory, it offers daytime tours to tell of its history and night-time banquets to show how things were in days of yore. And beside the castle is the Folk Park, a marvellous theme park of reconstructed dwellings and places of business, dating mostly from the 19th century. They offer 20th century hospitality as well as a flavour of life in the old days.
