Built in 1142, Cahir castle is one of the largest castles in Ireland. Beautifully sited on an island on the river Suir, it is a fine example of a late Medieval Castle that had been enlarged and greatly remodeled in the 15th to 17th centuries.
When the ancestral line of the Butler family died out in the late 1700's, the castle began to fall into ruin.
It was partly restored in the 1840's by the Cahir Butlers and more fully restored after it became a National Monument in 1964. Among the restorations carried out was the faithfully reproduced portcullis.