Road Trip to Galway via Bunratty – October 2022

The best thing about siblings moving away from the family home is that it provides an opportunity, nay an excuse, to go and visit them.

We had just under 3 hours of driving to hit Salthill in Galway but our first stop was to Bunratty to visit Cameron.

The Castle

Located near the mouth of the River Shannon stands a huge 15th-century tower house. No school kid in the Munster Region will have the ability to deny this as it is firmly on the History field-trip repertoire of each and every secondary school as it is not derelict. It’s the center piece of an entire folk park of over 30 buildings in a ‘living’ village and rural setting. You can even book a spot in their regular Medieval Banquet nights.

The first castle was built using wood in 1251 by Robert De Muscegros, who was granted the land by King Henry III of England the year before, and became the centre of early Norman control in south-eastern Clare. 25 years later the lands were taken back by the King and granted to Thomas De Clare – a relative of Strongbow, and the English origination for the future name of that county. It is Thomas who built the first stone castle on this site in 1276 (the second castle).

Over the next 300 years a number of actions meant that the second and third castles were destroyed as local chieftains and Norman lords swapped control of the area. Even Edward the Bruce got involved at one point. The current structure that stands today is the fourth castle – built by the MacNamara Clan and then taken over by the powerful O’Brien clan who moved their seat from Ennis to Bunratty in 1558.

Cameron lived in the village here as he was a student at the nearby Shannon School of Hotel of Management. We had lunch with him at the famous Durty Nelly’s Pub across the road from the Tower. and then ran him up the road to Shannon Airport for a lecture. Before hitting the road again we brought Cillian to the nearby Shannon Town Park playground so he could tire himself out – and sleep on the journey up the M18.

City of the Tribes

Every trip to Galway is special. There is just so much character around this city. You really feel like you are on the edge as it’s the last stop before the wilderness of Connemara, the Atlantic Ocean, the Burren in County Clare to the south.

Historically too it is interesting. An oligarchy of fourteen merchant family (‘the tribes’) controlled the growth of the walled town into a trading port and the city that it is today. The city has retained a lot of that cobblestone streets and older buildings that some other cities would tear down in the march of progress.

The city held out against Oliver Cromwell for nine months after it had aligned itself with the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was later captured by Williamite forces after the Battle of Aughrim in 1691, which combined with the later famine in the 1840s marked the end of the power of the merchant families.

We got to our accomodation – a small apartment in the Salthill area and met up with Emmet just as the heavens opened up. This was a shame as there is a 2km promenade overlooking Galway Bay – so instead of a leisurely stroll along it we had to duck inside to wait out the rain.

Salthill is a seaside town to the west of the city so we were able to spend that time doing something decent – a visit to the Galway Atlantaquaria – Ireland’s National Aquarium. Cillian had a blast checking out all the fish and sea creatures and we were on our guard as he kept trying to grab one of the sea crabs and trying to keep his mitts out of the water.

That evening Karen stayed in to put Cillian down while the two Rose boys hit the town for some live music and a drink or two. Galway has a vibrant live music scene with no fewer than 10 pubs hosting sessions each and every night. We popped into the Salt House, Crane Bar before finishing up in the Latin Quarter, named after the connections between Galway and the Latin speaking nations whose ships would visit the port.

Here is a sample of the Trad music you might hear if you are lucky.

The next day we would hope that the weather would break enough for us to drive out to Connemara and explore some of that natural beauty while also exploring more of the city itself.

You can read all about that in Part 2. (Coming Soon).