Pictures of Irish Castle Balfour, Fermanagh

Picture an Irish castle and it will almost certainly be an isolated majestic ruin. There are plenty of picturesque Irish castle ruins, but they are only part of the story.

Irish castle picture: Balfour bawn graveyard

Take Balfour Castle as an example. These castle pictures taken in 2004 show the nearly 500 year-old castle in a dark mood. When Captain Nicholas Pynnar visited Lisnaskea in 1619 he found "great numbers of men at work" building a 70-foot square bawn and a "castle of the same length, of which one half is built two storeys high, and is to be three storeys and a half high".

No definite trace of the bawn survives, but the gaunt ruins of the castle still dominate the town. The ground where the bawn once stood is now a church graveyard.


Irish castle picture: Balfour ruins

Irish castle pictures are dramatic, whatever the circumstances. To take the best picture of an Irish castle, pick your spot and wait for the desired weather - if it is raining, decide on a moody, dramatic shot; if the sun looks as if it will shine for a while, decide to take a postcard-perfect portrait of an Irish castle and its magnificent grounds. If the weather will not cooperate with your picture idea, move inside the castle, if it is not a ruin.

Balfour Castle was built by the Scottish planter Sir James Balfour on the site of an important Maguire stronghold, it is a thoroughly Scottish-style T-plan house with corbelled stair-turrets, parapets, high-pitched gables and chimneys. The dressed stone entrance bay, flanked by gun-loops in the canted sides, is, however, derived from the English tradition of domestic architecture.

Just inside the entrance lay a timber stair giving access to the great hall on the first floor. On the ground floor are barrel-vaulted service rooms including a kitchen with a big fireplace and circular brick-built oven.

The castle was visited and refortified in 1652 by Ludlow, the famous commander- in-chief of Cromwell's Irish armies.

This revitalised castle was dismantled during the troubles of 1689 but reoccupied by the Balfours until 1738, when the property passed to the Townleys. The building ceased to be inhabited after a fire in 1803 and was acquired by the Crichtons of Crom in 1821.

As with Balfour, some Irish castles have been built around by successive generations. These locations may not lend themselves to Irish castle pictures of isolated splendour, but they do show that history involves developing stories and not just snapshots of time. Irish castle picture: Balfour exterior ruin

The Appletree Press title Irish Castles has many Irish castle pictures, and a wealth of information on the development of the castle in Ireland.