Donegal Castle

The castle was the stronghold of the O'Donnell clan, Lords of Tír Conaill and one of the most powerful Gaelic families in Ireland from the 5th to the 16th centuries.

[citation needed] Donegal (Irish: Dún na nGall), translates as Fort of the Foreigner possibly coming from a Viking fortress in the area destroyed in 1159.

[citation needed] Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill I (Red Hugh O'Donnell I), wealthy chief of the O’Donnell clan, built the castle in the 1460s or early 1470s.

This was indicated by a report by the visiting English Viceroy, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney, in 1566, in a letter to William Cecil (created The 1st Baron Burghley in 1571), the Lord 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 the Nine Years' War, the leaders of the O'Donnell clan left Ireland in the Flight of the Earls.

The tower 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.