Leamaneh Castle

A striking ruin in the Burren combining a fifteenth-century tower house with a tall gabled seventeenth-century mansion grafted onto it. It was the seat of the O'Brien family, and legend surrounds Máire Rua, the formidable lady of the house during the Cromwellian wars. Rows of mullioned windows in the manor wing rise beside the older fortified tower, illustrating the shift from defence to display. Standing at a crossroads in open limestone country, the roofless walls are visible from a distance across the treeless landscape.