Today, only a single wall survives; stretching 15 metres from east to west, half a metre thick and a metre high. This modest remnant is all that’s left of what was once an imposing tower house begun by Brian O’Rourke in 1582. The castle takes its name from Dubhrath, meaning “black rath” in Irish, though the origins of this evocative name remain unclear.

Early 20th century photographs captured the castle before its eventual collapse, revealing it to have been a substantial four-storey tower house. The ground floor featured a stone vault, whilst the upper floors contained passages built into the thickness of the walls, a common defensive feature in Irish tower houses of the period. These internal passages would have allowed defenders to move between rooms whilst remaining protected from attackers, and may have housed garde-robes and small chambers.

Brian O’Rourke, who commissioned the castle, was a prominent Gaelic lord of Breifne whose resistance to English rule would ultimately lead to his execution in London in 1591. His decision to build at Dooroy in 1582 came during a period of increasing English pressure on Gaelic lordships. The castle’s strategic position on Lough Gill would have provided both defensive advantages and control over water routes, though it couldn’t save O’Rourke from his eventual fate. Today, visitors must navigate through heavy undergrowth to reach this forgotten fortress, where imagination is needed to reconstruct its former grandeur from the single weathered wall that remains.