264 Iconic Buildings to Explore in Ireland

Ballinafad Castle was built in 1590 and is also known as the ‘Castle of the Curlews’. The castle is in ruins and is accessible year round. There are no tours, guides, or fees. Visitors can park in a small lot at the foot of the hill where they will find an interpretive sign. Visitors cannot enter the castle, but the interior is visible through breaches in the walls that are closed off by iron fences.

Ballinalacken Castle is a two-stage tower house located in Killilagh parish of County Clare, Ireland. It is of uncertain date but most likely was built in the 15th or early 16th century. The current tower house resembles Leamaneh Castle in that it was constructed over a prolonged period. The oldest part is the tall eastern tower, likely built in the 15th century. It is located in the region known as the Burren on a limestone outcrop overlooking the roads from Lisdoonvarna to Fanore and Doolin.

One of the most hidden of castles that dot the landscape of Ireland, right close to my aunt's house in Ballyadams, and seat to The O'Mores. According to Keating, the O'Mores have St. Fintan as their protector. Of thirteen families of Moore recorded in Burke's Landed Gentry.

Ballycowan Castle is a castle located 4 km west of Tullamore, Co. Offaly. It was built in 1589 as a fortified house by Thomas Morres.The castle was built on the previous site of the O’Molloy castle or tower house called Baile-mhic-Abhainn which was destroyed by a fire in 1557.

Ballygrennan Castle is a large tower-house set within the remains of a bawn. It consists of a tower house within bawn walls and it is a listed national monument. The castle is described by Westropp as a late 16th-century house, with extensive outbuilding and a court with an outer gate. There are remains of a number of later buildings with chimneys. The tower-house has two square bartizans at opposite corners.

Ballyhack Castle is located on a steep slope in a commanding position overlooking Waterford estuary in Ballyhack. It is a large tower house, thought to have been built c. 1450. The tower is five stories tall and the walls survive complete to the wall walk. Built into the north-east wall of the second floor is a small chapel complete with a piscina, aumbry and altar.

Ballyloughan Castle was probably built in the 13th century and consisted of a large open courtyard with a curtain wall and a moat outside. Only a small square tower at one corner survives, as well as the entrance gate, flanked by two large rounded towers. The tower in the north-eastern corner was abandoned in the 14th century, and the whole castle may even have been abandoned at this time.

Ballymoon Castle is a National Monument situated 2 miles east of Muine Bheag, County Carlow, Ireland. The castle is thought to date from the 13th century. It comprises a courtyard about 80 feet square, surrounded by granite walls, 8 feet thick and 20 feet high. Square towers project from three sides while a formidable gatehouse is the feature of the fourth.

A late 13th or early 14th Century enclosure castle. One of the strongest castles in Connaught and today it remains as an impressive ruin on the edge of Ballymote village. It is the last of the Norman castles in Connacht. It was probably built in order to protect the newly won possessions of Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster. Its main feature of this impressive fortification is the large gate building – a rectangular structure with projection 1/2 round towers at each side of the entrance.

Ballynahow Castle was built in the early 16th century by the Purcell family, an Old English family who held the title of Baron of Loughmoe. It stands five storeys high with two internal vaults, each covering two storeys; the top storey was for merly covered by a conical timber roof carried on squinch arches. The lower floors were used in the 1840s as a cottage. The tower house was transferred to state ownership in 1930.

Ballysaggartmore Towers are two ornate entrance lodges that are situated on the former Ballysaggartmore Demesne approx 2.5 kilometres from the town of Lismore in County Waterford, Ireland. The structures are considered architectural "follies".They were constructed for an Anglo Irish Landlord, Arthur Keily-Ussher no later than 1834. The house itself was large but of a very plain design, which was in obvious contrast to the lodges.

The Baltimore Beacon is a white-painted stone beacon at the entrance to the harbour at Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland. The beacon was built at the order of the British government following the 1798 Rebellion. It was part of a series of lighthouses and beacons dotted around the Irish coast, forming a warning system. The locals call him Lot’s Wife with a wink after a biblical figure that solidified into a pillar of salt.

Bantry House and Garden is a stately home in southwest Ireland situated right on Bantry Bay with panoramic views of the bay and the caha mountains. The gardens contain seven terraces; the house is located on the third. One hundred steps are located behind the house and fountain, and are surrounded by azaleas and rhododendron.

Barryscourt Castle was the seat of the great Anglo-Norman Barry family and is one of the finest examples of a restored Irish Tower House. Dating from between 1392 and 1420, the Castle has an outer bawn wall and largely intact corner towers. It was built in a style fairly typical in Ireland in the 16th century, consisting of a main tower house building with smaller adjacent buildings arranged around a courtyard, which was protected by an outer "bawn" or curtain wall, with 3 smaller corner towers.

This fine cut-stone group of buildings was erected in 1852. It served the poor of the parishes of Templeport , Corlough, Kildallan, Drumreilly, Newtowngore, Ballinamore, Swanlinbar and part of Glangevlin. A Board of Guardians governed each union; some nominated by the Grand jury and others by the voters of the rate-payers . The Guardians levied a rate on the union and used the proceeds to support the workhouse.

A majestic house which was built by Sir Henry Titchbourne, Marshal of the Army in Ireland, and Governor of Drogheda. It is believed to be the finest example of Irish domestic architecture to survive from the Restoration. Inside the impressive house the walls are adorned with excellent family portraits, as well as a superior collection of the works of many famous Irish artists of the early part of the 20th-century. It is one of the earliest unfortified major houses built in Ireland.

Benburb Castle was built in the 1610's by Sir Richard Wingfield during the Plantation. It was probably built on the site of an earlier stronghold of Shane O’Neill, on a cliff above a bend in the Blackwater River; the border between the counties of Tyrone and Armagh. It was then called the Wingfield Bawn. The castle has been restored and stands in the grounds of the imposing Servite Priory, a religious order based in the village.

This is a large castle in the town of Birr in County Offaly, Ireland. It is the home of the 7th Earl of Rosse and his family, and as such the residential areas of the castle are not open to the public, though the grounds and gardens of the demesne are publicly accessible, and include a science museum and a café, a reflecting telescope which was the largest in the world for decades and a modern radio telescope.

Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, near Cork, Ireland. The castle originally dates from before 1200, when a timber house was believed to have been built on the site, although no evidence remains of this. Around 1210 this was replaced by a stone fortification. The castle is now a partial ruin with some accessible rooms and battlements. Tourists visiting Blarney Castle may hang upside-down over a sheer drop to kiss the stone, which is said to give the gift of eloquence.

Blarney Woollen Mills was built in 1823. It was used mainly for spinning and weaving wool. They carved out a niche in tweeds, woolen worsted cloths, knitting wools and hosiery. A fire at Christmas in 1869 saw the destruction of the mill. It was re-built the following year and still stands to this day. Business declined in the mid-20th century, and Blarney Woollen Mills closed in 1973.