  We report on the critical current density Jc and the vortex dynamics of
pristine and 3 MeV proton irradiated (cumulative dose equal to 2x10^16 cm^-2)
$\beta$-FeSe single crystals. We also analyze a remarkable dependence of the
superconducting critical temperature Tc, Jc and the flux creep rate S on the
sample mounting method. Free-standing crystals present Tc =8.4(1)K, which
increases to 10.5(1)K when they are fixed to the sample holder by embedding
them with GE-7031 varnish. On the other hand, the irradiation has a marginal
effect on Tc. The pinning scenario can be ascribed to twin boundaries and
random point defects. We find that the main effect of irradiation is to
increase the density of random point defects, while the embedding mainly
reduces the density of twin boundaries. Pristine and irradiated crystals
present two outstanding features in the temperature dependence of the flux
creep rate: S(T) presents large values at low temperatures, which can be
attributed to small pinning energies, and a plateau at intermediate
temperatures, which can be associated with glassy relaxation. From Maley
analysis, we observe that the characteristic glassy exponent {\mu} changes from
~ 1.7 to 1.35-1.4 after proton irradiation.
