264 Iconic Buildings to Explore in Ireland

Castle Ward is a highly unusual house built in 1762-60 by an unknown architect for Bernard Ward, later 1st Viscount Bangor and his wife. Castle Ward is open to the public and includes 332 hectares (820 acres) of landscaped gardens, a fortified tower house, Victorian laundry, theatre, restaurant, shop, saw mill and a working corn mill. It has a shore on Strangford Lough.

Castlecoote House is an early Georgian Palladian mansion built on the grounds of a ruined 16th century castle overlooking the beautiful River Suck. This elegant family home combines 18th century architecture, fine plasterwork ceilings and marble period fireplaces with the ultimate in 21st century comfort. It was a strategic site, and may have been the base of the Chieftains of Fuerty, the MacGeraghty clan.

Castledonovan is a townland in Dromdaleague, which lies on a rock on the east bank of the River Ilen in the townland of the same name, in County Cork in Ireland. Approximately 60 feet in height, it sits on a large rock or outcropping, which forms the ground floor, close to the bank of the River Ilen. The Castle was divided into various chambers or rooms. One room was set aside in the old days for food for the garrison and another store room for gunpowder and shot.

A majestic country house set amongst beautiful eighteenth-century parklands on the banks of the Liffey in Celbridge, County Kildare.It formed the centrepiece of a 550-acre estate. Sold to developers in 1965, the estate is now divided between State and private ownership. It was home to a significant collection of paintings, furnishings and objets d’art. Highlights include three eighteenth-century Murano-glass chandeliers and the only fully intact eighteenth-century print room in the country.

A Gothic-style castle located in County Offaly, Ireland, bordering the town of Tullamore, near the River Clodiagh. It is considered one of the finest of its type in the country. The castle itself is believed to be the most haunted building and grounds in Europe, with it appearing on Living TV's Most Haunted and Fox's Scariest Places on Earth.

Clara Castle is a tower house located in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It was built in the sixteenth century by the Shorthall family. It is five storeys tall with a vault above the third floor. The building retains many of its original oak doors and floor beams. There is a murder-hole above the entrance, which is also protected by a yett and drawbar.

Claregalway Castle is a fully restored 15th century Anglo-Norman tower house. The castle is the original home of the Brian Boru Harp and it was Situated on the banks of the River Clare, in Claregalway village. You can walk the corridors of time and follow the history of the Castle from Norman times to its current restoration, experiencing the masterful woodwork of the great hall and the stonework that has stood against time.

Situated on a hill overlooking the village of Mullaghmore, Classiebawn Castle is an Irish castle located in County Sligo. It is a fairy tale castle that sits on the steep coastline of the Irish coast, with a breathtaking view of the Ben Bulben, one of the most famous mountains in the area. It was designed in the Baronial style by Dublin architect James Rawson Carroll, and is constructed from a yellow-brown sandstone brought by sea from County Donegal.

Clifden Castle was built by John d'Arcy in a Gothic Revival style between 1812 and 1815. Overlooking the Clifden Bay, the castle features a round tower to the southeast, as well as two round turrets, a square tower and the entry tower. Entering through the large medieval gateway, you will see a number of standing stone erects. Uninhabited after 1894 it fell into disrepair. In 1935, ownership passed to a group of tenants, who were to own it jointly, and it quickly became a ruin.

Clomantagh Castle is part of a unique settlement of tower house, farmhouse and bawn. Originally constructed in the 1430s, additional buildings and outbuildings were added in the subsequent centuries - including a connected 19th century farmhouse. The castle was subject to renovations in the late 20th century and is now managed as a holiday rental property.

A majestic castle located in Clonea Lower townland, roughly two and a half miles east of Dungarvan, the castle lay on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the shore by Clonea Beach. It was owned by the Maguire. The structure's entry in National Monuments Service records indicate that it was "not an antiquity", but was built in the late 18th or early 19th century, possibly on the site of an earlier Fitzgerald family fortification.

Clonmacnoise is a ruined monastery situated in County Offaly in Ireland on the River Shannon south of Athlone, founded in 544 by Saint Ciarán, a young man from Rathcroghan, County Roscommon. The wooden castle that stood on the top of the motte at Clonmacnoise was destroyed by fire and later in 1214 the Justiciar of Ireland, Henry of London, built a stone castle on the motte.

Clonmore Castle is a 13th century Anglo-Norman castle located in Clonmore, County Carlow, Ireland. The castle is roughly square in plan with rectangular towers at the southern sides of the courtyard. Due to a lack of heritage preservation, most of the castle is now covered in ivy, and large gaps have appeared in the north and west walls. The building is now entirely empty with no trace of a stone floor.

This fine stable block and coach house with its imposing Jacobean revival style facade of coursed rubble basalt and Tardree granite dressings, was built c1843 by the 10th Viscount Massereene as part of his creation of Her Ladyship’s Pleasure Gardens which necessitated the removal of the original coachyard at the rear of the Castle. It is believed to have been designed by Charles Lanyon.

Clough Castle is an 11th century Anglo-Norman motte-and-bailey castle located in Clough, County Down, Northern Ireland. It consists of a ruined tower house situated on a 7.6 metres high motte. A small crescent-shaped bailey lies next to the south-east of the motte, separated by a 2.1 metres deep ditch. The castle may have been abandoned during the early 14th century before it was rebuilt as a tower house in the 15th century.

Cloughoughter Castle is a ruined circular castle on a small island in Lough Oughter, 4 kilometres east of the town of Killeshandra in County Cavan, Ireland. It stands on a small island, scarce three hundred feet in diameter, just sufficient to contain the castle and a small margin of rock around it. The island stands in very deep water; the shores are a mile distant, wild, yet thickly wooded.

The Cobh Heritage Centre is a museum located in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland. It is attached to Cobh railway station. It has held exhibits on life in Ireland through the 18th and 19th centuries, mass emigration, the Great Famine, on penal transportation to Australia, and on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. The centre is a tourist destination, including with visitors from cruise ships, which often dock in Cobh. The centre has two onsite gift shops and a café.

Craggaunowen is a 16th-century castle and an archaeological open-air museum in County Clare, Ireland. It was built around 1550 by John MacSioda MacNamara, a descendant of Sioda MacNamara, who built Knappogue Castle in 1467. The open-air museum was started by John Hunt. It features reconstructions of ancient Irish architecture, including a dolmen, a crannog, and the currach boat used in Tim Severins recreation of "The Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbot".

Dún Dealgan Motte is a motte and National Monument in Dundalk, Ireland. Some legends claim the site as the birthplace of Cú Chulainn, and it is here that he bases himself in the Táin Bó Cúailgne. The Annals of the Four Masters places a battle here in 500 AD. The house was rebuilt in 1850 by Thomas Vesey Dawson as a country retreat, but fell into disrepair and was bought by the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society to be used for a museum.

Cullahill Castle was the principal stronghold of the MacGillapatricks of Upper Ossory built around 1425 and destroyed around 1650. Cullahill Castle takes its name from an ancient forest that covered Cullahill Mountain and extended down to Cullahill village. It was constructed around 1425 by the MacGillapatricks of Upper Ossory, Finghin MacGillapatrick being the possible builder.