I went out to Cooley near Moville in Co Donegal this afternoon. It is a place full of atmosphere and with great views over Lough Foyle. Quite cold and blowy but a good place to start the New Year.
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Doe Castle, Sheephaven Bay, Co Donegal. Built for the Mac Sweeny's in the Fifteenth Century, it is a typical tower house of the period which unusually retains its surrounding bawn wall. The building is very well preserved being restored in the nineteenth century and again in the mid 2000's (when the tower was lime washed once again and a roof reinstated). It is located in a remote and very picturesque situation. It is a place of great character. It was brought into public ownership in 1932.
Newmills Corn and Flax mill just outside Letterkenny is a beautifully restored mill in a very picturesque location. Typical of many it is modest in size and powered by a large water wheel.
Donegal Castle (1474-1563), principal O'Donnell castle, with remodelling and addition of Jacobean Manor House by Sir Basil Brooke c. 1623. Roof recreated to a high standard by the Office of Public Works in the early 2000’s
Back along the base of Inishowen to Derry, Elagh Castle is visible among the foothills. What remains is very fragmentary and looks like a circular tower house but some have speculated that there was once a second tower making a gatehouse similar to that at Harry Avery’s Castle in Co Tyrone. The castle was occupied by the O'Doherty’s at the time of the Ulster Plantation in the early Seventeenth century but the site appears have been occupied as a major defensive position since at least the early medieval period. Recent archaeological excavations discovered a ditch from this period and those involved have speculated that this, rather than Grianan, may have been the location of Alieach, one of the great royal sites of Ireland.
Back towards Derry, the graveyard at Fahan is worth a visit. Here is St Mura’s cross, a stone slab with Celtic ornament and small projections at its side. It is thought to date from the beginning of the eighth century and is associated with an important early monastery on this site. An inscription in Greek (the only example in Ireland) translates as ‘Glory and honour to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit’. This is a formula first used at the Council of Toledo in 633.
On Binion Hill between Ballyliffin and Clonmany is the townland of Upper Annaugh, This historic building is now gone but it means a lot to me as I spent ten summers here as a child. Rope thatched in the local vernacular tradition with a low curved ridge and pegs along the eaves to secure the ropes, this was a direct entry house with a traditional ‘bed outshot’ to the rear.
Carrickabraghy Castle is situated on the Isle of Doagh, around the corner from a fine view of Lagg Church on the opposite side of Trawbreaga bay. The building is shown in a map of 1690 as a tower house surrounded by an oval bawn wall with seven circular towers. Today, one circular tower survives against the keep. It is thought to date from the sixteenth century and was a castle of the O'Doherty’s, It is a very atmospheric place recently well conserved after local fundraising.
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