Portumna Castle: Fun Things to Know About a Central Ireland Landmark

Central Ireland, in Connacht Province, is where you'll find the elegant Portumna Castle. To reach Portumna Castle in County Galway from the Dublin Airport, expect a two-hour drive heading west.

Your journey by car will take you along the bustling M4 and the M6, and then you'll follow the much quieter R455 to Castle and Abbey Streets in Portumna until you reach the parking area for the castle.

Things to Know About Portumna Castle

Unlike many of the residential castles in Ireland, which had defense as their first priority, Portumna Castle is only partially fortified.

As a result, its exterior is more ornamental, and less fortress-like, than most other castles on this list.

Portumna is located in County Galway, and it was built in the early 17th century by an earl. Incredibly expensive for the time, Portumna was the height of elegance and grandeur in Ireland in the 17th century.

Although abandoned for nearly a century, restoration work in the late 20th century has reinvigorated the property, which is now open to the public.

Want More Irish Castles?

It is probably obvious - at Irish Expressions, we love Irish castles! The Emerald Isle is dotted with hundreds of these incredible structures. Sharing pictures and stories about them gives us a deeper sense of connection with Ireland, wherever in the world we happen to be!

Knowledge of Irish castles and their fascinating stories will also help you enjoy the many downloadable, share-able Irish games, puzzles, recipes, songbooks, quizzes, and many other resources that we have collected for you over the years.

Want them right now? Keep reading to learn about "Your Irish Expressions Playbook."

Want Even More? :-)

For more information of this kind, you might pay a visit to our section on Ireland Castle Vacations here!

And for travel ideas in general, check out our section on Ireland Travel Destinations.

More Fun With Irish Expressions

Congratulations on learning more about the Emerald Isle and discovering what we like to call your "Irish Side." You may be thinking "I'd love to actually VISIT Ireland but that's really not in the cards right now. What am I supposed to do with the stuff I just learned?"

Well never fear! Since 2009 we have collected all of the best printable, shareable resources we could find, to help you put your new knowledge of Ireland to good use. We've put them all together in a single download we call "Your Irish Expressions Playbook," which contains over 50 pages of games, puzzles, recipes, songbooks, quizzes, travel guides and much, much more.

Purchase them ALL for one small price, print as many copies as you like and share them with your friends - with no limitations! But order soon - we are already adding to the Playbook for future editions and this price will not last long.

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