Castles in County Donegal

Dún na nGall · Ulster · 12 places

County Donegal (Dún na nGall) in Ulster features 12 mapped castles, led by Glenveagh Castle, Doe Castle, and Donegal Castle. Across these 12 listings, 8 feature verified photography and 8 include mapped nearby public parking. Medieval fortresses, Norman keeps, and tower houses.

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Glenveagh Castle

Glenveagh Castle (Irish: Caisleán Ghleann Bheatha) is a large castellated mansion located in Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal, Ireland and was built in about 1870.

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Doe Castle

Doe Castle, or Caisleán na dTuath, near Creeslough, County Donegal, was the historical stronghold of Clan tSuibhne (Clan McSweeney), with architectural parallels to the Scottish tower house. Built in the early 15th century, it is one of the better fortalices in the north-west of Ireland. The castle sits on a small peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, with a moat cut into the rock of the landward side. The structure consists mainly of high outer walls around an interior bawn with a four-storey tower-house or keep.

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Donegal Castle

Donegal Castle (Irish: Caisleán Dhún na nGall) is a castle situated in the centre of Donegal Town in County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. The castle was the stronghold of the O'Donnell clan, Lords of Tír Conaill and one of the most powerful Gaelic families in Ireland from the 5th to the 16th centuries. For most of the last two centuries, the majority of the buildings lay in ruins but the castle was almost fully restored in the early 1990s. It is now open to the public.

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Carrickabraghy Castle

Carrickabraghy Castle (Irish: Caisleán Charraig Bhrachaí stands in the townland of Carrickabraghy meaning "Friars Rock" in Irish) on a rocky outcrop at the north-western extremity of the Isle of Doagh, at the head of Pollan Bay, in the north of Inishowen, a peninsula on the north coast of County Donegal, Ireland. The townland and its castle are located in the Parish of Clonmany in the Barony of Inishowen East. Known as 'The Castles', the site is of local historical importance.

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Greencastle

Northburgh Castle, also known as Green Castle or Greencastle Castle, is a ruined late 13th/early 14th-century castle in Greencastle, a village and fishing port in the north of Inishowen, County Donegal, on the north coast of Ireland. It was completed in 1305 by Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster. Northburgh Castle was sited to control Lough Foyle, and to act as an enabler to de Burgh's plans for expansion. The rock outcrop/platform on which the castle is built was not big enough to incorporate the plans, so the gatehouse is below the main castle extents and has its first floor at the level of the main courtyard: the gate passage leads only to a small lower courtyard from which steps lead up to the main one. It was captured by Edward Bruce in 1316 who held the castle for two years until his death in 1318, after which it was recaptured by Richard. Walter Liath de Burgh was imprisoned in the castle in 1331 by his cousin (and Richard's Grandson) William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster (the 'Brown Earl'), and died of starvation in February 1332. Anecdotally, that act is commemorated in the Derry City coat of arms as a skeleton. William's sister was found dead beneath the battlements. After William's death, the castle became a stronghold of the O'Doherty family. The castle belongs to a typological group that incorporate the keep (or donjon: the great, usually defensive main, tower) in the outer defences (i.e. the curtain wall), rather than a standalone structure within the defensive walls. It consists of an oval enclosure with twin polygonal-towered gatehouse at one end and a more ruined large polygonal tower (added later: likely in the 15th century) at the other. McNeill draws parallels with the design (although not the scale) of Greencastle's gatehouse with the great Edward I castle of Harlech, Wales; with the rest of the castle construction drawing parallels with Caernarfon. The overall design, too, was influenced by its patron (Richard Óg de Burgh) who was close to Edward, and was knighted by him at Rhuddlan Castle. "The architectural references, especially the external appearance derived from Caernarvon, must represent a deliberate choice by Richard, associating himself with the crowning castle of Edward's conquest." This cross-pollination of architectural ideas between Wales and Ireland is widespread in the great castles: "Stylistic ideas were clearly moving between north-western Ireland and Wales in the late 1200s and early 1300s, as witness two baronial castles in Ireland – Ballintubber, County Roscommon and Greencastle, Co. Donegal." The gatehouse is of a type that signifies a move away from castles in Ireland as purely military/defensive structures to symbols of power, centres of administration, places to launch further expansion in territory and as accommodation, whilst retaining their military capabilities. When describing the gatehouse at Northburgh (Greencastle), Sweetman states: "It was most commodious: it had considerable accommodation in the gate building, the north tower, the west tower and in the great hall which lay along the north wall between the two towers. The castle was comfortable and fashionable." Northburgh Castle suffered considerable damage by cannon fire and eventually was left in ruins after the 17th century. The castle remains under management of the Government of Ireland (Office of Public Works). There are two access points for the public, from the town and from the shore.

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Inch Fort

Inch Fort, Lough Swilly, Inishowen, County Donegal was built between 1812 and 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars. It had positions for nine guns, six in an open battery and a further three in a blockhouse. Following the peace in 1815, the defences of Lough Swilly were neglected. During the 1880s a scheme to strengthen the defences in Lough Swilly was put into effect. By 1893 Inch Fort had been rearmed with two 6-inch guns on hydropneumatic carriages. A small barrack complex was added at the same time. Following recommendations of the Owen Committee in 1905, the guns were deemed surplus and the fort was disarmed and abandoned. Today the site includes the two 6-inch gun positions and associated magazines, but the Napoleonic blockhouse was mostly demolished during the 1890s remodelling.