Take the Gort road (R460) out of Corofin and the towering presence of Ballyportry Castle comes in to view a little over a mile from the town. Its prominence in the landscape which includes lakes Shandangan and Cullaun and a stream in the grounds is emphasised by its perch on a high outcrop alongside the road. Nearby, beside the swan covered Lough Atedaun is the old graveyard of Kilvoydan, the last resting-place of Robert Owen Brown, the American architect who lovingly restored Ballyportry.

Possibly the finest late medieval tower house in county Clare, and certainly that in the most intact state of preservation, Ballyportry was built by a branch of the O’Briens probably at the very end of the fifteenth century. It has stood here for five centuries, the road that runs by it being of more recent date. An excellent example of a north Munster tower house, it comprises a four-story tower within a wall yard or bawn. The tower consists of an intact spiral stone stairs with a series of small rooms (including probably a chapel) to one side; on the other, there are two vaulted floors, one over the ground floor and another over the third floor where it forms a solid floor for the magnificent great hall above. The floor or winter solar has a fine mid-seventeenth century fireplace and a loft in the thickness of the wall to which access was possible only by ladder. The great hall also has a fine fireplace and is over looked by a balcony from which there is access to a battlement roof. At roof-level an oblong chamber leads up to a tiny garden which affords a secluded view of a surrounding panorama which includes Mullaghmore and the other stone hills of the Burren.

The early to mid seventeenth century bawn has musket loops in its corner towers, and is a reduced version of a fifteenth century precursor, traces of which may still be seen at ground level to the south and west. While little space was considered necessary for outside buildings in the defence conscious seventeenth century, there is no doubt that farm buildings with daub walls and thatched roofs stood in the original bawn. The present owners hope to have a proper archaeological excavation to establish the location and character of these buildings as a preliminary step to their possible reconstitution at the site.

There is a kitchen at the very top, originally the only one when Brown restored the building and at the very bottom, there is another large kitchen on the ground floor. There are 2 bathrooms with showers, a separate ground floor toilet and a cloakroom as well as a large (2 person) stone bathtub in one of the bedrooms.

Ballyportry is almost as important for the quality of its twentieth century restoration by its American architect owner, Bob Brown, as it is for its quality as a late medieval fortified residence. Following extensive research, Brown repaired and roofed Ballyportry in the 1960’s and 70’s. The roof is a copy of Ireland’s only surviving late medieval roof at Dunsoughly, Co Dublin. The fireplaces and chimneybreasts were lovingly put in place by Brown’s team of masons and their helpers. Most remarkably, Brown succeeded in installing a warm air heating system with sunken ducks and modern plumbing and toilet arrangements in a most sympathetic way without intruding on the integrity of the fabric. This was done by capitalising to the full on the fifteenth century latrine shafts (toilets and drains) and by covering over the air ducts with floors of Liscannor flagstones.

The present owners are determined to preserve in  full every surviving medieval detail and also to keep every aspect of Brown’s work. It was their appreciation of the latter that drew them to the tower house in the first place. Most of the original walls are now of exposed stone although they were originally covered with a lime plaster on the inside (and possibly on the outside as well). All the mortar centerings with their original wattle reinforcements will be retained as they are. 

The idea is that visitors will use Ballyportry to explore their own sense of that period through the experience of living in a tower house.