The Story OF Doe Castle l:ff J. C. T. M~DONAGH JN 1915 members of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ire. land visited County ·Donegal and one of them, 'an expert in architectural history, gave the following as his considered opinion of the buildings and fortifications ca:Jed Doe Cast:e (1), "Though -converted into a modern residence it still has the main chariacteristiCs of a sixteenth century fortress ... a central tower (fifty five feet high) with battlements, enclo.:;ure and bawn. The principal entrance was on the la!'Jd side by ,a bridge across the ditch but there were app:·oaches from the sea a'.so. Below the original bridge, wbich is to the right of j.he later entrance, is a masked outlet, now filled with stones, which opened .into t.he ditch. The eentra 1 tower is enclosed on three sides by modern structures wllkh fo part are built on the walls of an inner rampart. .such as the French style chemise, at a ::;hort cb;- tance fr.cm the base of the to\ver and flanked by circular bastions. The interior of the tower has been much altered. The lower storey is not now vadted and it cannot now be seen whether it was so originally or not. There is no sign Qf a vault at the summit of the tower. The original entrance to this tower was on the ground iloor and a straight stair in the thick ness of the wall, to the right of the door, gave access to the upper rooms ·and finally becoming a circular stair, in one angle of the tower. a>- cended to the battlements. The parapets of the tower and the enc:osing wall were loopholed for musketry nnd were 'arranged in pairs as at Carrickogunnel, so that the same gunner could fire in two different directions". ,A local antiquary, Harkin, in h is "Scenery and Antiquities of North West Donegal'' (2) placed on record a Doe traditio:1, dating into the eighteenth century, which told that the cnst:e was built by Nacthan O'Donnell, for one of his many sons; thereby associating it with the erection of similar structure3 at Burt, Inch :and Rame'.ton. This tradition diso related that the Mac Sweeneys were .g'.ven Doc Castle whell peace was made between Owen O'Neill. Prince of Tyrone, a,1d Nachtan O'Donnell, Prince of Tirconnell. Mac .Parland in his Statistical Account of County D<J!"'egal, gave another tradition which al~o dated back .into the eighteenth century "Doe cnstle ... situated at. Cann<m's
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