Page 34 - O Mahony Journal 2025

most of his books were lost, destroyed, or stolen during the several attacks on the castle on into the
1700s. During those years ownership swapped several times including its being taking by the English
in 1584 for Donal MacConor O Mahony’s support of the Earl of Desmond’s Rebellion. Storms and
weather during the last half of the 20th century turned most of the standing remains into a pile of
stones. Rosbrin hosted the Clan Gathering in 1956, 1968, and 1973.
Rossmore Castle remains stand about a mile from Durrus
Village at the edge of Friendly Cove on Sheep’s Head. It
reputedly was an O Mahony castle built in the 15th or 16th
century. Little else is known about Rossmore Castle although
Cul-na-Long, a castle of the MacCarthys who were overlords
to the O Mahonys, is nearby. The Clan gathered here in 1969
and 1992.
The following O Mahony Clan castle sites of the Western
Lands are entwined with the O’Meighans, bards to the O
Mahonys:

Castle Meighan was built by the first O Mahony Fane,
Conor Fionn O Mahony, in 1540 for the O’Meighans, bards and
stewards of the O Mahonys. It stood about 400 feet above and overlooking Crookhaven on the
north side of the inlet and has a grand panoramic view of Toormore Bay to the east. Title was taken
in the Confederate War and nothing remained twenty years ago except a part of its foundation.

Lisagriffin Castle. Nothing remains of Lisagriffin Castle except a rough, rounded field with some
large stones in field walls and scattered over the surrounding area. The site is about 175 feet
elevation on a gentle slope looking out to sea over the estuary between Brown Head and Mizen
Head. It is unlike most other O Mahony castles because it was not built on the edge of a cliff and
it may have been built and resided in by the O’Meighans, the O Mahony bards, on land granted
them by the O Mahonys in the mid 1500s. But Lisagriffin Castle has generally been listed as owned
by the O Mahonys.

Dunkelly Castle was forfeited by Donogh Oge Meighan for participation in the Confederate War
and granted to Sir William Petty. His Petty Map of the period does not locate a building but only an
area for Dunkelly, leaving in doubt where it stood. Most likely it was sited near Canty’s Cove on the
ground overlooking it.

Dough Castle is just above the Barney Cove estuary on the
road from Crookhaven to Lisagriffin. It was a small castle or house
that appears on the Petty Map of 1652 and part of the lands
forfeited by the O’Meighans. Dermot and Thady MacTadhg O
Mahony of Dough were outlawed and dispossessed in 1690 for
supporting King James and the author conjectured that they
were still considered overlords to the O’Meighans at that late
date. In 1983 the author’s inspection found Dough House to be
a 19th century summer house with ruins of an old village nearby
and speculated it had been built over whatever had been the
small structure called Dough Castle.

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