Dunguaire Castle

Dunguaire Castle stands on a rocky promontory jutting into the harbour at Kinvara, on the south shore of Galway Bay, and is one of the most photographed castles in Ireland — its compact tower mirrored in the still water of the bay. The tower house was built around 1520 by the O'Hynes clan, on the site of a much older royal stronghold of Guaire Aidhne, the 7th-century king of Connacht, from whom it takes its name.

In the early 20th century the castle was bought by Oliver St John Gogarty — surgeon, poet and the model for Buck Mulligan in Joyce's Ulysses — who made it a gathering place for the figures of the Irish Literary Revival. W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory (whose Coole Park estate is nearby), George Bernard Shaw and J.M. Synge all visited, and that literary connection runs through the castle's story today.

Daytime visits (April–October) take you up through the restored tower to the battlements for a view over Galway Bay and the hills of the Burren beyond. In the evening the castle hosts a long-running medieval banquet — a four-course meal with mead, music, poetry and readings from the writers tied to the place, in two nightly sittings (booking essential). Kinvara itself is a pretty fishing village at the edge of the Burren, a natural stop between Galway city and the Cliffs of Moher.