Originally described in 1601 as a modest stronghold belonging to Connor McGarrett O’Doherty, the castle underwent its first recorded repairs just a year later under Hugh Boy O’Doherty. The fortress would soon find itself at the centre of one of Ulster’s most dramatic uprisings when Sir Cahir O’Doherty launched his revolt against English rule in 1608, resulting in English forces putting the castle to the torch.

Following the failed rebellion, the crown granted the burnt ruins to Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester, as part of the Plantation of Ulster scheme. Chichester promptly leased the property to Henry Vaughan, who set about transforming the damaged castle into something altogether more fashionable. By 1611, contemporary records paint a picture of industrious reconstruction, noting that Vaughan had ‘stronglie rebuylded’ the castle, complete with an English-style parapet crowning its walls. The ambitious restoration included preparations for a defensive bawn; a fortified enclosure typical of Plantation-era architecture; with lime being burnt on site for the construction work.

The Vaughan family would call this rebuilt fortress home for over a century, adapting and maintaining it through changing times until 1718, when they constructed a new house on the estate, marking the end of the castle’s residential life. Today, the castle remains catalogued as monument DG029-025001, whilst the later Vaughan house is recorded separately, together forming a layered archaeological landscape that tells the story of conquest, plantation, and the gradual transformation of Gaelic Donegal into an Anglo-Irish estate.