Accommodation cratloe

A few miles beyond Bunratty is Cratloe Castle, a square tower built by the MacNamaras in 1610. The woods of Cratloe furnished oaks for the roof of Westminister Hall in London and Amsterdam City Hall (now the royal palace); the woods were once also the haunt of a highwayman named Freeney. Cratloe Woods House, the last inhabited example of an Irish longhouse is near by and is open to the public during the summer. Six miles (10 km) east of Ennis, beside the village of Quin, is Quin Abbey. This well-preserved ruin is of a Franciscan friary founded in 1402 by Sioda MacNamara.