54°39′18″N8°06′40″W / 54.655°N 8.111°W /54.655; -8.111
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Donegal Castle (Irish:Caisleán Dhún na nGall) is acastle situated in the centre ofDonegal Town inCounty Donegal inUlster, the northernprovince in Ireland. The castle was the stronghold of theO'Donnell clan, Lords ofTír 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.
The castle consists of a 15th-century rectangularkeep with a laterJacobean style wing. There is a small gatehouse at its entrance mirroring the design of the keep. The complex is sited on a bend in theRiver Eske, near the mouth ofDonegal Bay, and is surrounded by a 17th-century boundary wall. Most of the stonework was constructed from locally sourcedlimestone with somesandstone.[citation needed]
Donegal (Irish:Dún na nGall), translates asFort of the Foreigner possibly coming from aViking fortress in the area destroyed in 1159. However, due to hundreds of years of development, no archaeological evidence of this early fortress has been found.[citation needed]Hugh Roe O'Donnell I, wealthy chief of the O’Donnell clan, built the castle in the 1460s or early 1470s. In 1474, he and his wife Nuala founded aFranciscanfriary further down the river. A locallegend[citation needed] tells of a tunnel connecting the two but no evidence for this has been found. The castle was regarded as one of the finestGaelic castles in Ireland. This was indicated by a report by the visitingEnglishViceroy, theLord Deputy of Ireland,Sir Henry Sidney, in 1566, in a letter toWilliam Cecil (created The 1stBaron Burghley in 1571), theLord High Treasurer, describing it as "the largest and strongest fortress in all Ireland", adding:[1]
"it is the greatest I ever saw in an Irishman's hands: and would appear to be in good keeping; one of the fairest situated in good soil and so nigh a portable water a boat of ten tonnes could come within ten yards of it"
In 1607, after theNine Years' War, the leaders of the O'Donnell clan left Ireland in theFlight of the Earls. In 1611, during thePlantation of Ulster, the castle and its lands were granted to an English captain, Basil Brooke. Thetower house was severely damaged by the departing O'Donnells to prevent the castle from being used against the Gaelic clans but was quickly restored by its new owners. Brooke also added windows, a gable and a largemanor-house wing to the keep, all in theJacobean style.
TheBrooke family owned the castle up until the 1670s when they moved to nearLisnaskea inCounty Fermanagh. At that time, in the 1670s, the Brookes sold the castle to the Gore dynasty, who later becameEarls of Arran in thePeerage of Ireland. The castle fell into a ruinous state under the Gores in the early 18th century. In 1898, the then owner,the 5th Earl of Arran, vested the castle in theOffice of Public Works.[citation needed]
In the early 1990s, the castle was partially restored by theOffice of Public Works (the O.P.W.). The tower house element has had new roofing and flooring added, in keeping with the original styles and techniques used in the 15th and 17th centuries. The stonework has been restored and the manor wing has been partially roofed. Some of the oak timbers used came from the Colebrooke Estate, just outsideBrookeborough inCounty Fermanagh. Parts of the exterior of thetower house have beenharled.
Donegal Castle was granted to Sir Basil Brooke in 1616. It was eventually restored in the 1990s,[2] and it is now open to the public as a tourist attraction.[3] The castle is now open to the public and often hosts events such as Gaelic cultural evenings orUlster Scots events.
