Embanked enclosure — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Donmory castle was a rectangular bawn on a SE-facing slope above Dunmurry Lough, large enough to hold horses, tools and every living thing a household needed when danger came. Its walls are still there, partly buried in a field boundary and partly reduced to a low rise, but the scarp on the NE and SE sides keeps the shape alive. The castle may have had a round flanker at its NE corner, yet no trace of that tower remains, leaving Donmory half-remembered: a room without a roof, a castle reduced to the discipline of its own outline.

Depicted as a rectangular embanked enclosure (ext. dims c. 35m NE-SW; c. 30-35m NW-SE) and described in gothic lettering as a 'Fort' on the 1835 OS 6-inch map. It is situated on a SE-facing slope with Dunmurry Lough c. 150m to the SE. This is a raised rectangular area (int. dims 42m NE-SW; 40m NW-SE). The perimeter has been incorporated into a field boundary (Wth 3.8m; int. H 1.4m) at SW and is visible as a low rise (max. int. H 0.3m) at NW, but it is defined by a scarp (H c. 0.4m) on the NE and SE sides. There is no visible fosse or entrance. Davies (1947a, 119-20) speculates that it could be the castle depicted at Donmory (97) in Drung parish on the Civil Survey (1656-8) barony map, for which see this web-page accessed on 14/04/2016 http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Tulloghgarvey&c=Cavan He describes it (ibid.) as a bawn with a large circular flanker (diam. 8.9m) at its NE corner but there is no evidence of the flanker. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 14 April 2016

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