Donegal Castle

Donegal Castle is a scarred tower house and Jacobean manor on the River Eske, built and rebuilt by O'Donnell and Brooke families across the 16th and 17th centuries. Hugh Roe O'Donnell is credited with first erecting a castle there before 1505, while Basil Brooke later reshaped the keep into a grand residence with mullioned windows, a bay front and new fireplaces. The castle was burned, damaged, occupied, abandoned and finally saved as a National Monument. Its rooms still reveal a guard-chamber, spiral stair, vaulted hall, narrow defensive openings and a grand chamber where a great bay window once faced outward.