This modest rectangular structure, measuring roughly 9.5 by 7 metres, once served as the seat of the MacClancy family, who held the prestigious position of brehons, or traditional judges, to the powerful O’Brien dynasty of Thomond. The castle’s history can be traced through various owners: Donough MacClancy held it in 1574, whilst by 1641 it had passed to Sir Roland Delahoyde, who had married into the MacClancy family through a daughter of Inch Castle. The Cromwellian conquest brought an abrupt end to this Gaelic ownership when the castle was confiscated and granted to Philip Bigoe as part of the widespread redistribution of Irish lands.

Today, visitors to the site will find little more than the skeletal remains of low rubble walls, largely stripped of their original facing stones and overgrown with thorn bushes and ash trees. The western wall stands as the best preserved section, reaching up to 1.8 metres in height and still displaying some squared facing stones at its centre. The other three walls fare less well; the eastern wall is partially buried under collapsed material, whilst cattle have degraded the northern wall’s base, leaving loose rubble scattered about. Traces of mortar and what might be fragments of render cling to some of the surviving basal blocks, whilst remnants of a defensive base batter can still be spotted at the northeastern corner, hinting at the structure’s former military purpose.

The castle’s decline accelerated through local pragmatism rather than dramatic siege or battle. According to local memory, much of the stone was quarried from the ruins to build nearby roads and possibly contributed to the construction of Bunavory House and its outbuildings, which stand about 270 metres to the northeast. The interior, now accessed through a small gap in the northern wall, sits noticeably higher than the surrounding ground level, filled with earth and rubble that has accumulated over centuries. Despite its ruinous state, the castle maintains its presence on Ordnance Survey maps, consistently marked as ‘Bunavory Castle (in ruins)’, ensuring its place in the historical landscape of County Clare remains documented, if not restored.