[Illustration: BUNRATTY CASTLE.] _BUNRATTY CASTLE_ The village of Bunratty is situated in the Barony of Lower Bunratty, County Clare, and the castle stands on the banks of the Ougarnee River, a little above its juncture with the Shannon on its northern bank, about six miles below Limerick. The former name of the river was Ratty, and the name, therefore, signifies the end or mouth of the Ratty. The fortress is still in a very fair state of preservation and shows many signs of alterations during its existence. It consists of an oblong structure, flanked by four square towers built into the angles, which are joined at the head by depressed arches. The north-east tower contains an oratory. It has a piscina, and the ceiling is a handsome specimen of richly moulded seventeenth-century stucco work, probably executed when the “great Earl” of Thomond restored the castle in 1610. Out-offices and servants’ quarters formerly surrounded the main building, but were removed by the late Mr. Studdert to supply material for the modern manor house. An inscribed stone at the summit of the castle states that the present building was erected by O’Brien in 1397. There are marks of shot still visible on the walls. The cantred of Tradee was granted in fee farm to the Norman Robert de Muscegros, at a yearly rent of £30. Henry III. remitted him two years’ rent in 1251 to enable him to fortify Bunratty Castle, which he had built. Shortly after he surrendered it to the King on condition he was allowed for the repairing, provisioning, and defending of it. It was taken by the Irish in 1257. De Muscegros exchanged his lands of Tradee, in Thomond, with Sir Richard de Clare in 1275 for property in England, and the following year Bunratty Castle was taken for the King by Geoffry de Gyamul, Lord Justice. The same year King Brian the Red granted to de Clare the district he had acquired by exchange, and he at once began to repair the castle. It is recorded he built “a defensive thick-walled castle of lime and stone, which was a sheltered, impregnable fortress, and a wide white-washed mansion which he founded in the clear-harboured Bunratty,” and that he resided here with English retainers whom he purchased “for love or money.” Torlough O’Brien invaded Thomond, and its King, Brian, fled to Bunratty. Among those who opposed the invaders was de Clare’s brother-in-law, Patrick Fitz-Maurice, who was slain in the conflict. When news of his death reached Bunratty there was great lamentation, and his sister, de Clare’s wife, denounced King Brien, who was then at dinner, as the cause of the disaster. He was thereupon dragged from the table, bound to wild horses, and literaly torn to pieces. This act of treachery was rendered even more horrible from the fact that he and de Clare had sworn friendship with the most solemn rites.