Donegal Castle

A restored castle in the centre of Donegal town, built by the O'Donnell chieftains in the fifteenth century and later remodelled by an English planter with a Jacobean manor wing. The rectangular keep contains a great hall with an elaborate carved fireplace and rich plasterwork. As the seat of one of the most powerful Gaelic dynasties, it was central to the affairs of the north-west before the flight of the earls in 1607. Furnished rooms and Persian rugs recreate the appearance of a seventeenth-century lordly residence.