What is recorded here

Indicated is a deerpark north of Bunratty castle where three thousand deer once moved through ponds and grounds so striking that Cardinal Rinuccini called the place the most beautiful he had ever seen. The park still holds that shape, irregular and broad, while four modern dwellings occupy its eastern edge. It remains a lived-on trace of a grander claim, where beauty was measured in deer, water and distance rather than ornament.

Sherlock (2011, 215), notes that Cardinal Rinuccini, who supported the Confederate army during the siege of 1646, wrote as follows: ‘I have no hesitation in asserting that Bunratty is the most beautiful spot I have ever seen. In Italy there is nothing like the palace and grounds of Lord Thomond, nothing like its ponds and park, with its three thousand head of deer.’ An irregularly shaped deerpark (265m N-S; 277m E-W) is indicated and named on the 1840 OS 6-inch map c. 800m N of the castle. Four modern dwellings occupy the E portion of the deerpark. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 14 October 2019

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