Built by the O’Conors of Corcomroe before the 1420s, this six-storey tower house witnessed its share of violence early on; in 1422, Rory O’Conor met his end here at the hands of a relative in what was then called Caislean Dumhcha. The castle changed hands to the O’Briens by the mid-16th century, who formally received it from the O’Conors in 1582 and secured their ownership through surrender and regrant with the English crown a year later.

The O’Briens of Dough took an unusual path for Irish nobility by converting to Protestantism, a decision that shaped the castle’s survival during turbulent times. When the 1641 Rebellion erupted, Sir Daniel O’Brien sided with English settlers rather than his Catholic countrymen, and in 1652 he successfully petitioned Cromwell’s forces to spare his stronghold from demolition; a rare mercy in an era when most Irish castles were systematically destroyed. The family continued to inhabit Dough until the turn of the 18th century, when they relocated to nearby Ennistymon, leaving their ancestral seat to the elements.

Today, only the northwest wall of the limestone tower house remains intact, rising approximately 20 metres above the golf links that now occupy this strategic coastal position. The surviving walls reveal a fascinating architectural evolution, with five large window openings from the late 17th or 18th century cut into what was once a medieval defensive structure, their splayed embrasures originally supported by wooden lintels. The eastern wall collapsed before 1839, followed by additional sections including a chimney around 1878, yet enough remains to showcase the building’s original dimensions of 13.5 by 9.8 metres, complete with ground floor loops, an aumbry, and evidence of timber floor joists at each level.