County: Donegal Site name: DOE CASTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 26:02301 Licence number: —
Author: Heather A. King, National Monuments
Site type: Castle - tower house and Bawn
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 608654m, N 931975m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.135058, -7.864287
Doe Castle, situated on a small promontory in Sheephaven Bay, comprises a tower-house with adjoining buildings and is enclosed by a bawn wall. It has been undergoing restoration work for a number of years. Monitoring was undertaken in December 1998.
Two trenches were opened in the north-west quadrant of the bawn. One trench for electrical wiring ran from the window on the north wall of the tower-house in a westerly direction, immediately adjacent to the tower-house wall, and then across the bawn in a south-westerly direction to the projecting gate-tower. The second trench, for a drain outlet, was opened from the east side of the window on the north wall of the tower and ran northwards to exit under the loop in the bawn wall. The trenches showed that the castle is built on rock outcrop with small deposits of soil in the rock fissures. Nothing of archaeological interest was noted.
Dúchas, 51 St Stephen's Green, Dublin
