Castle Ruins Ireland

There are castle ruins and Norman tower houses everywhere you look in Ireland. Some of my favorites are Cahir, the Rock of Cashel, Trim, Blarney, and Bunratty.

Thank you all, I appreciate your suggestions. @Cynthia, yes by ruins i mean open to the elements and I am also interested in abbeys, and megalithic ruins. Two years ago I did I trip like this to Scotland and it was wonderful. I saw where someone mentioned this map: Official Road Atlas Ireland 2010-2011 (O/S Road Atlas)

Cahir Castle is not a ruins. In fact, it may be one of few intact castles remaining in Ireland. Nearby Cahir is the Swiss Cottage where you walk along a stream to reach it-very pretty place and fully furnished-has a thatched roof. Have a great trip!

True, Cahir is not a ruin. It's actually my favorite castle in Ireland.

The castles Nancy mentions are all well-preserved ruins. Are those the type you want to see? If your idea of "ruin" is something open to the weather and being overtaken by ivy, we visited a few of those last month. Cloughoughter is a romantic ruin in County Cavan; you can see it from shore, if you want to actually get to it, you need a boat.......Ballykine Castle is a bit west of Cong. To get to it you walk about 1-2 level km. through a forest park. It is a very romantic ruin. There are several similar castle ruins when you drive from Kenmare towards Cahir; probably many more in other areas. When you get to Ireland, buy one of the maps that has a scale of about 1 inch to a mile and you will find lots of castles, abbeys, and megalithic ruins marked on the map. We bought maps of County Cork and County Kerry in the bookstore in Kenmare. 12.95 euros each.

Hello again John, We bought these maps from Amazon before our trip and used them for planning and marking our routes for future reference: Michelin Ireland 712 and the OS (Ordance Survey) Official Road Atlas Ireland.........In Ireland we bought the Xploreit Map of Kerry and of County Cork, scale of 1:100 000 (I think that's about one inch = one mile) and used those for finding all of the obscure castle sites.......We also did Scotland in 2010. There seemed to be more ruined castles in Ireland than Scotland - I think it was just more densely populated.

I'll get beat up for saying it, but I really liked Blarney Castle. It was a much more interesting ruin than I expected - a pleasant surprise.

I love Blarney castle, too. The castle itself is interesting and the grounds are extensive and beautiful. There is a neolithic dolmen on the grounds, too.

If your trip includes Northern Ireland, don't miss Dunluce Castle on the Antrim coast. It's a ruin, but the setting on a coastside cliff and the surrounding scenery are spectacular.