About
Doe Castle stands nestled in an inlet of Sheephaven Bay in County Donegal, skirting the wild waters of the Atlantic, the medieval stronghold of the MacSweeneys, a waterside citadel with a thrilling history. The fortress was built in the 1420s and for almost two hundred years served as home, refuge and bastion for at least thirteen MacSweeney chiefs: Eoghan Og II gave shelter here to survivors of the Spanish Armada of 1588, and the last chief, Maolmhuire an Bhata Bhui, marched out with Red Hugh O'Donnell to the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. The tall tower house rises inside a crenellated bawn wall on a grassy point above the shore rocks, and display panels chronicle its history. The grounds are free and open every day, with a small car park, a ruined church and graveyard beside it; the keep, which holds an exquisitely carved MacSweeney grave slab of 1544, is seen only on guided tours arranged in advance by email.
Open in daylightFrom OPW Heritage Ireland's published times
Please note there is no OPW Visitor Centre at this site. Guided tours of the keep may be accommodated, strictly by appointment only. Please contact doecastlecreeslough@outlook.com
- Open any reasonable time in daylight
Opening times may change at short notice.
The grounds are open daily all year round, with no opening hours published by OPW and no visitor centre on site. Guided tours of the keep may be accommodated strictly by appointment, by email to doecastlecreeslough@outlook.com, with cancellations advised 48 hours in advance; at other times the tower and the gates in the outer walls are locked. Reviewers allow twenty to thirty minutes for the grounds and suggest emailing ahead for the tour, which they rate highly.
OPW lists access as limited: the castle stands on the shoreline, where the rocks are very slippery in rain and the ground floods after wet weather, so wear good shoes. No toilets, cafe or shop.
Photo: Doe Castle's tall tower house and crenellated bawn wall with its round corner tower, seen from the rocky shore of Sheephaven Bay. Patrice78500, Public domain. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doe_Castle.JPG. Licence: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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