Doe Castle was the historical stronghold of Clan tSuibhne (Clan McSweeney), with architectural parallels to the Scottish tower house. Built in the early 15th century, it is one of the better fortalices in the north-west of Ireland. The castle sits on a small peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, with a moat cut into the rock of the landward side. The structure consists mainly of high outer walls around an interior bawn with a four-storey tower-house or keep.
Doe Castle was most likely built c.1420 by the Quinn family, but by the 1440s, it had come into the hands of the gallowglass MacSweeney family. The castle remained in the hands of a branch of the Clan Sweeney known as Mac Suibhne na d'Tuath (Mac Sweeney Doe) for almost two hundred years until it was seized by King James VI and I because the MacSweeneys had rebelled against him. On 7 March 1613 during the Plantation of Ulster, the king granted the castle, along with other lands, to the Attorney-General for Ireland, Sir John Davies (poet, born 1569). On 31 December 1614, Sir John sold the castle to an English settler, Captain John Sandford from Shropshire, England.
The castle changed hands repeatedly during the 17th-century struggle for control of Ireland between the English and the Irish. It is known that in 1650, Sir Charles Coote, the Governor of Londonderry, took possession of the castle. Eventually, the castle was bought by Sir George Vaughan Hart and inhabited by his family until 1843.
In 1932, the castle came into the hands of the Land Commission, and in 1934 was declared a national monument and was acquired by the Office of Public Works. The tower house element of the castle underwent a major restoration in the 1990s.
The castle grounds are open daily and guided tours of the tower house are available during the summer months.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.