House - fortified house

The National Monuments Service's description

Dún Iomain or Dún Imghain, where Turlough O'Conor built a fort, was burnt by Muirchartach Ua Lochlainn in 1154 (AFM vol. 2, 1113). The O'Finaghty of Clanconway, a territory W of the Suck, were dispossessed in the 13th century when Adam Staunton erected a castle, probably an earthwork castle, here in 1232 which was destroyed by Felim O'Conor in 1233. In 1283 a castle was built by John de Stanford (Graham 1988, 31; Lynn 1986, 101) which passed to the Berminghams before passing to the Burkes c. 1310, when it became a centre of the Mac David Burkes. It was captured by Aodh Mac an Abbot O'Conor in 1400. Up to this it may have been an earthen ringwork castle but the present structure may have been built by the Burkes in the fifteenth century, and references to the castle continue into the 17th century (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 59-60).
The Burkes were dispossessed in the 1650s, but they may have converted the castle into a fortified house (RO038-010002-) modelled on their nearby castle at Glinsk, Co. Galway (GA007-062001-), and given it its present general appearance in the early 17th century. The King family of Boyle leased it to the Caulfield family in 1668, who acquired it outright in 1733. The castle was extended by adding a W wing in 1855 when the present crenellations were added to the older structure. The Caulfields continued to live there until 1920 (Conboy 1986), and the Divine Word Missionaries acquired it in 1939. It is now a diocesan retreat centre for the diocese of Elphin. (Maddigan, M. 1997)
It is situated towards the W end of a WNW-ESE ridge on the S bank of a W-E section of the River Suck. This is a rectangular structure of three bays with three storeys and attic over a basement (dims 24.5m E-W; c. 15m.25m N-S) with rectangular windows that have square hood mouldings, all of which were probably renewed in the 19th century. The central bay on the N and S is recessed with an arch over the second floor like Bunratty castle, Co. Clare (CL061-001001-). Corner machicolations on the battlements, known from an engraving of 1792, no longer survive. The interior was decorated in fine plasterwork in the 19th century, which was restored in the 1990s under rector Fr. Shane Fitzgerald. The church (RO038-011001-) is c. 170m to the E.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1931 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Roscommon collected during the progress of the
Ordnance Survey in 1837. Bray.

Maddigan, M. 1997 Donamon. A history of the castle and its owners. Donamon. Divine Word Missionaries.

Lynn, C.J. 1986 Some 13th-century castle sites in the west of Ireland: note on a preliminary reconnaissance. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 40, 90-113.

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)

Conboy, T. 1986 Donamon Castle. Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society 1, 37.

Graham, B. 1988 Medieval timber and earthwork fortifications in western Ireland. Medieval Archaeology 32, 110-29.