Bunratty Castle (meaning "Castle at the Mouth of the River Ratty") is a large 15th-century tower house located in the centre of Bunratty village by the N18 road between Limerick and Ennis, near Shannon Airport. The castle and the adjoining folk park are run by Shannon Heritage as tourist attractions.
The first recorded settlement at the site may have been a Norsemen settlement or trading camp reported in the Annals of the Four Masters to have been destroyed by Brian Boru in 977. According to local tradition, such a camp was located on a rise south-west of the current castle. Around 1250, King Henry III of England granted the district of Tradree to Robert De Muscegros, who in 1251 cut down around 200 trees in the King's wood at Cratloe. These may have been used to construct a motte and bailey castle, which would have been the first castle at Bunratty, but again the exact position of this is unknown. A later reference in the state papers, dating to 1253 gives de Muscegros the right to hold markets and an annual fair at Bunratty. It has thus been assumed that the site was the centre of early Norman control in south-eastern Clare. Early 19th-century scholars put the structure to the north-west of the current castle.
Source: Wikipedia