Standing on a rocky promontory jutting into Sheephaven Bay near Creeslough, Doe Castle has the kind of natural defences that made it worth fighting over for centuries. Water protects three sides whilst a deep fosse, carved straight into the bedrock, guards the landward approach. The MacSweeney family built the fortress around 1420, and it remained their stronghold for nearly 200 years.

The castle first appears in written records in 1544, during a violent succession dispute within the MacSweeney Doe clan. By then it was already well established as a formidable base of power. In 1588, MacSweeney chief Eoghan Óg II sheltered survivors from the wrecked Spanish Armada fleet here. The last MacSweeney chief to hold Doe, Maolmhuire an Bhata Bhuí, marched from these gates to fight alongside Red Hugh O’Donnell at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, a defeat that would reshape Ireland’s future.

The castle changed hands repeatedly during the 17th-century wars. King James I seized it after the MacSweeneys rebelled, eventually granting it to Sir John Davies in 1613, who sold it to Captain John Sandford the following year. In 1642, Owen Roe O’Neill landed here with a hundred Irish veterans from continental wars to lead the Ulster Army during the Confederate Wars. Sir Charles Coote took possession for English forces in 1650, and the castle remained a military garrison through the Williamite Wars until Donogh Óg MacSweeney briefly recaptured it.

After its military days ended, the castle fell into serious decay. When George Vaughan Hart acquired the property around 1800, he found the keep roofless and gutted, with the courtyard walls nearly levelled. His family undertook an ambitious restoration, even installing five nine-pounder cannons on an earthwork to the east. The Harts lived here until 1864, after which the castle was abandoned once more.

The four-storey tower house stands at the heart of the complex, rising nearly 17 metres to its parapet. Inside, spiral staircases wind through the walls, garderobes are cleverly built into the stonework, and on the third floor you can still see the fixtures for a timber winch that once hauled goods directly into the upper chambers. The surrounding bawn walls, with their pronounced outward slope, are accessed by stone steps leading to crenellated walkways, though it’s often difficult to distinguish medieval work from 19th-century additions.

The Irish Land Commission purchased Doe Castle in 1932, and it was declared a National Monument in 1934. Major restoration work in the 1990s brought the tower house back from the brink. Today, an exquisite carved grave slab from 1544 is displayed inside, whilst interpretive panels detail the castle’s turbulent history. Beyond the main enclosure lies one of Donegal’s oldest graveyards, with headstones dating back centuries, easily missed if you don’t know to look for it.