This video brings us to County Donegal and Donegal town to visit Donegal Castle. It’s situated on the river Eske close to where it opens into Donegal Bay and this was the stronghold of the O’Donnell clan.
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They were one of Ireland’s most powerful Gaelic families between the 5th and 16th Centuries. The castle was built by Red Hugh O’Donnell in 1474 and it was referred to by the English in 1566 as one of the finest Gaelic castles in Ireland. The boundary wall was a later edition to the castle although it dates from the 17th Century.
Alas, the leaders of the O’Donnell clan left Ireland in 1607 in what’s known as the Flight of the Earls. This meant that the castle fell into English hands in 1611 during the Plantation of Ulster and the new owner, a Capt. Basil Brooke, repaired previous damage that the departing O’Donnell’s had inflicted on the building to prevent it being used against the Gaelic clans. He also added the large manor-house wing, which was built in Jacobean style.
The castle was partially restored in the 1990’s although it had lay in ruins for the 200 years prior to that. It’s thought that this castle stands on the site of an earlier Viking settlement destroyed in 1159 since Dún na nGall (the Irish for Donegal) translates as Fort of the Foreigner.
6 сен 2024
