The historic O’Doherty’s Keep in Buncrana has been put back on the market – a year after being sold at auction.
The ruins of the iconic 14th century castle in Swan Park were sold to a private buyer for an undisclosed fee in September 2023.
Now it is on the market again for sale by private treaty for €200,000.
Sitting on the banks of the River Crana, the castle was once occupied by the O’Doherty Clan and has links to Wolfe Tone. It is the founding site of Buncrana town and remains an ancestral home to their descendants.
O’Doherty’s Keep, Swan Park, Buncrana, Co. Donegal. Image: Sean Furey Auctioneers
According to the sale brief for the property listing “Its current owner has decided to pass the property on to a new generation of guardians whom it is hoped will be sensitive to the preservation of the location in return for being permanently written into the history of Buncrana locally and the O’ Doherty Clan internationally.”
The O’Doherty’s Keep has a rich and tumultuous history.
Sean Furey Auctioneers detailed the many events that occurred here:
The word Keep was used to describe a refuge or place of last resort for defensive purposes. The O’ Doherty Clan has a distinguished & unique history going back to earliest records of 1208. They were lords of Inishowen from the 1300s up to 1608 when Cahir O’ Doherty, once knighted for his bravery, was executed for treason.
The keep was burned in 1608 by Crown forces in reprisal for the rebellion of Sir Cahir O’ Doherty who sacked and raized the city of Derry.
After Sir Cahir’s death the Keep was granted to Sir Arthur Chichester who leased it to Englishman Henry Vaughan. Further restoration work was carried out by the Vaughan family who occupied the keep until 1708.
In October 1798 Wolfe Tone, the founder of Irish Republicanism, was arrested and held in the vicinity of O’Doherty’s Keep before being tried and convicted of treason in Dublin.
It was acquired in 1969 by local Buncrana resident Ronald H.C.O’ Doherty. The Keep is unique and has authentic and tangible links to an historic story spanning hundreds of years and many countries. It is a monument of identity for many who were forced to leave Ulster over several hundred years. It is a symbol of identity for the diaspora who left Ulster, for those who returned home and for those who live and work in Buncrana and Inishowen.
International descendants of the O’ Doherty Clan visit their ancestral home to reconnect with their roots and Irish family.
The sale this often called a ‘priceless artefact’ is sure to generate great interest and talk both locally and internationally.
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