Doe Castle or Caisleán na dTuath is found on the edge of Sheephaven Bay just outside Creeslough.It sits on a penisuala surrounded by water on three sides which made it the perfect defensive stronghold for the MacSweeney Clan.
Doe castle was built in the 1420s. For almost 200 years it served as home for the MacSweeney clan. The MacSweeneys were gallowglasses originally hailing from Scotland. and were brought to Ireland by local chieftains to fight in their armies. The MacSweeney na d’Tuath branch of the family became the lords of Doe Castle. Over time, the castle became one of the most important strongholds in the region, with the MacSweeneys frequently fighting alongside the O’Donnells. Young Red Hugh O’Donnell was fostered at Doe Castle.
It is said that Doe Castle gave shelter to survivors of the 1588 Spanish Armada. The last chief of the castle, Maolmhuire an Bhata Bhui, marched with Red Hugh O’Donnell to the Battle of Kinsale in 1601.
Following the Flight of the Earls in 1607, the castle was seized by King James VI and the 200 year occupancy by the MacSweeneys ended. The King gave the castle to the Attorney General for Ireland in 1613, following the Plantation of Ulster.
The castle changed hands repeatedly during the 17th-century struggle for control of Ireland between the English and the Irish. It is known that in 1650, Sir Charles Coote, the Governor of Londonderry, took possession of the castle. Eventually, the castle was bought by Sir George Vaughan Hart and inhabited by his family until 1843. He transformed the castle into a country manor in the early 19th century complete with battlements. His initials can be seen today above the doorway on the east side of the keep.
The last occupant was a Church of Ireland minister who left in 1909. In 1934 it came under the protection of the Office of Public Works. They carried out extensive restoration work in the late 1990s.
There is a Mac Sweeney grave-slab, dating from 1544, on show inside the tower house. While display panels onsite chronicle the castle’s history in detail.
The Graveyard at Doe Castle
Adjacent to the castle lies a small, ancient graveyard, which is the resting place of several members of the MacSweeney clan. The graveyard is one of the oldest burial grounds in Donegal, with some headstones dating from before 1800. Some of the gravestones have been transcribed by Donegal Genealogists and can be seen on the Donegal Genealogy website
The poet Niall Mac Giolla Bhride’s song about Doe Castle
The Creeslough poet Niall Mac Giolla Bhride wrote a famous song called Turlough Óg Ó Baoill about Doe Castle.
Wild are thy hills, O Donegal, that growing darkly rise
As if to greet the mist that falls upon them from the skies;
Dark, dark thy hills and darker still thy mountain torrents flow,
But darker still Maolmuire’s heart in his Castle Hall at Doe.
Stout are thy oaks, O Donegal, and straight thy ashen tree,
And swift and strong thy sons so tall thy country’s pride to see;
But oak or ash or young men all that sprung from Irish soil,
Were not more stout, swift, straight and tall than the chief of Clan O’Boyle.
air are thy plains, O’Donegal, and calm thy winding streams
That gently flow by hut and hall beneath the bright sunbeams;
But plain or stream or meadow green or flower upon the lea(?),
Were not more mild than Maolmuire’s child, so sweet and fair was she.
Boyle was the pride of Faugher side near the hills of Ballymore,
For feats of strength, none equalled him from Fanad to Gweedore,
And he would go through frost and snow on the merry Christmas Day
With ringing cheer to hunt the deer from his haunts in dark Glenveagh.
In his little boat O’Boyle would float, a fishing he would go,
With hook and line to Lackagh stream that flows near Castle Doe.
High in the Castle tower his loved one lay confined,
And on the lofty battlements in sorrow deep she pined.
At the Castle strand two boats were manned to wait the rising tide,
Maolmuire there in chief command right cowardly did hide;
And when O’Boyle his homeward course steered by the Bishop’s Isle,
He was waylaid and a prisoner made of fearless young O’Boyle.
They brought him to the Castle, in strong irons he was bound,
And by Maolmuire was confined in a dungeon underground;
But on a few days after, inside the graveyard wall,
Four stalwart ruffians bore a bier wrapped in a funeral pall.
Poor Aileen from her tower above beheld the mournful scene,
In mute amaze she cast her gaze on the Castle graveyard green,
All pale in death beside a mound of freshly risen soil,
The pall removed, she there beheld the features of O’Boyle.
Then with a shriek she madly leaped from the tower to the ground,
Where by her faithful waiting maid her corpse all cold was found.
And in Doe Castle’s graveyard green beneath the mouldering soil,
Maolmuire’s daughter sleeps in death with Turlough Og O’Boyle.
Doe Castle in local legends
You can read more about legends associated with Doe Castle in the Duchas folklore collection which consists of folklore and stories collected from children of the area. The below image is taken from a school book owned by someone who went to Massinass school just outside the village of Creeslough. It talks about the local legends about ghosts who haunted the area belonging to Judith Mc Sweeney from Doe Castle. It is transcribed as:
“Maolmurra had a daughter named Judith, and his castle was besieged by the English. He accused her lover who was in the Castle at the time of attempting to surrender the Castle to the enemy. He seized a battle-axe, and as he was going to strike him down, Judith rushed in and received the blow instead. He threw her dead body into a great well inside the ramparts. Afterwards the well was filled up and it is said the Castle kitchen is now built on the spot.
The ghost of Judith McSweeney was supposed always, locally, to haunt the kitchen of Doe Castle.”
Guided Tours of the keep may be accommodated on request. Advance notice is required. Please contact [email protected].
Admission to the grounds is free.
