Place to stay in Kinvara (Dunguaire Castle)?

Kinvara is quite small, so you won't find a large selection of accommodation. There is a hostel, a few B&Bs and a small hotel. You don't mention what your budget is, but none (including the hotel) are particularly expensive.

Are you just wanting to tour the castle during the day, or are you planning on going to the medieval banquet in the evening? The castle is small, so a daytime stop will take 1 hour or less. Galway is about a 40 minute drive from Kinvara if you want a larger selection of lodging.

Well, we would like to do a day trip to the castle and the early banquet. We will still have our rental car then but we want to avoid driving in Galway. Do you know if there are buses that go to the castle? If so, staying near but not in the area would be good. Do you have nay suggestion sor near by areas that we could bus from?

There are a number of B&Bs on College Road in Galway which are easy to get to from the highway, yet still only a 10 to 15 minute walk to Eyre Square, the sights and the pubs of Galway, so you can park your car once and forget about driving in Galway. They also have their own off-street parking for guests (The Four Seasons which is in the RS Ireland Guide is one of these B&Bs). Salthill also has a lot of B&Bs, guesthouses and hotels with easy off-street parking.

There is a public bus that departs a few times a day between Galway's train/bus station and goes to Kinvara which are ok for a day trip to see the castle, but I'd recommend you drive in the evening for the banquet as the buses don't leave that often and don't run very late.

Kinvara is a nice town to stay in - although it is quite small, it is well situated for day trips to The Burren, Cliffs of Mohrer, Ailwee Caves, etc. They have about a dozen pubs within 4 blocks in the center of Kinvara and several offer live music certain nights of the week.