Castle — unclassified in Townparks (ballyshannon Ed)

This O'Donnell castle clearly was built to guard the ford here on the River Erne. The town, and presumably the castle, were taken and burned in 1522 in a raid by O’Neill into Tyrconnell (AFM, v, 1355) and it was here that Red Hugh O’Donnell stopped on his way north after his escape from gaol in 1592 (ibid., vi, 1925). The castle was besieged, in 1597, by Sir Conyers Clifford who had come north into Tyrconnel with a large force to subdue O’Donnell. Clifford stationed his troops and ordnance in Mullanshee Fort which occupied a high hill (DG107-053002-). For three days his troops ‘continued to fire on the castle with heavy balls, emitted with loud report and flashing flames from the loud-sounding, red, shot-vomiting guns of that heavy and immense ordnance which they had planted opposite the fortress, so that their reports and loud thundering in the regions of the air were heard far and distant from them. They sent large parties of their choicest soldiers to the base of the castle with wall-razing engines, and with thick and strong iron armour about their bodies, and bright-shining helmets on their heads, and with a bright testudo of round, broad, hard iron shields around them, to protect them from the shots of their enemies. The resolute attack they made upon the fortress, however, was of no avail to them; and it had been better for them that they had not come upon this journey against it; for from the castle were poured down upon them showers of brilliant fire from well-planted, straight [aimed] guns, and from costly muskets, and some rough-headed rocks and massive solid stones, and beams and blocks of timber, which were [kept] on the battlements of the fortress, in readiness to be hurled down [when occasion required]; so that the coverings of the razing party were of no shelter or protection to them, and great numbers of them were destroyed, and others who were severely wounded became so exhausted that they delayed not to be further slaughtered, and, turning their backs to their enemies, they were routed to the camp. The people of the fortress kept up a constant fire on them, and killed an unascertained number of them.’ (AFM, vi, 2029) Clifford eventually was forced to quit the siege and lost many soldiers in his route southwards. The castle was taken by Henry Docwra during his campaign in the north in 1602 (O’Donovan 1849, 263, 281). After the conclusion of the Nine-Years War (1594-1603) and peace was made with O'Donnell, the Dublin Government retained Ballyshannon castle and fort together with 1,000 acres on which it was intended to develop a town. The task of establishing this was entrusted to Sir Henry Ffolliot and the borough was incorporated in 1613. It would appear that the castle may have been ruined or, more likely, added to for the contemporary plantation records note that Lord Folliott ‘is building a fair and strong castle there of lime and stone’ (Treadwell 1953-5, 513). The castle was located on the eastern side of the river close to the bridge. Lughaidh O'Clery, in his life of Red Hugh O’Donnell, noted that the castle was on the bank of the river (Murphy 1895, 33). Allingham (1879, 30) recorded that ‘Of the castle of Ballyshannon nothing now remains but a portion of one of the walls (about 10 feet high and 5 feet thick), part of which is incorporated with a grain store, and part with a butter shed on the north side of the market yard. The castle buildings doubtless occupied the whole or greater part of the ground now used for market purposes, and probably extended some way further up the river bank, and from its "well battlemented" towers were poured many a volley of bullets and other missiles on the luckless enemies without. The castle park (a name still preserved in some old leases of adjacent premises) extended almost, if not entirely to the summit of the hill northward of the castle; and long after the building was demolished, a quantity of human bones was discovered in a garden close to the castle walls . . .’ Lewis (1837, i, 166) records that ‘A small portion of the ruins of the once celebrated castle of the O'Donnells, Earls of Tyrconnell, is in the town . . .’ and O’Donovan, writing in the mid-19th century in his edition of the Annals of the Four Masters noted that ‘The site of this castle is pointed out in a field on the east side of the town of Ballyshannon, called the Castle Park, but the walls are level with the ground and scarcely traceable.’ (AFM, vi, 2029, note w) The sections of the castle which survived into the later 19th century may have included or incorporated parts of the 17th century building erected by Folliott. It’s location was not recorded by the OS on the 1st ed. OS 6-inch map nor on their large scale (1:1056) MS town plan (surveyed 1834) though the name 'Castle Street' is reflective of its siting to the east. The ITM coordinates given here are based on the account given by Allingham above and should only be considered as indicative of its location. Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 17 August 2017