Keep it secret

This little building is locally known as ‘O’Doherty’s Keep’. It resembles a 15th-century fortified tower house but recent excavations revealed that it may possibly be a corner tower of an undocumented 13th-century Norman castle. It came into the possession of the O’Dohertys in the 1400s who used it as a part of their network of castles around the Inishowen. In 1588, sailors from the Spanish Armada were ‘housed’ in the keep by Sean Óg O’Doherty after being shipwrecked in Kinnegoe Bay. In 1608 Sir Cahir O’Doherty led a rising against the English garrison in Derry who burned it in reprisal. In a book by Harry Percival Swan, a photograph shows a collection of swords, daggers, and pike heads that were found were found under the keep which backs up this fact. After this rebellion, all of Cahir’s property was confiscated and granted to Sir Arthur Chichester. Chichester subsequently leased it to a fellow Englishman called Henry Vaughan, whose grandson George ‘planned’ Buncrana Town. In 1798, Wolfe Tone was captured aboard a French Frigate in Lough Swilly and imprisoned in the Keep before being taken to Dublin.

Thanks to Walking to Donegal.com for nice video

Ciaran Tourish from Buncrana is one of Donegal’s great musical exports. Tourish is best known as the nimble fiddler and whistle player from the band Altan who has played globally with the likes of Paul Brady, Mary Black & Dolores Keane.