Drumboe Castle was located on the outskirts of the town of

Stranorlar Stranorlar () is a town, townland and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in the River Finn (County Donegal), Finn Valley of County Donegal, in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Stranorlar and Ballybofey (located on the other side of the River F ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, Ireland.

Early history

1622 Events January–May * January 7 – The Holy Roman Empire and Transylvania sign the Peace of Nikolsburg. * February 8 – King James I of England dissolves the Parliament of England, English Parliament. * March 12 – ...

, during the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ) was the organised Settler colonialism, colonisation (''Plantation (settlement or colony), plantation'') of Ulstera Provinces of Ireland, province of Irelandby people from Great ...

, Robert Redington sold the estate at

Ballybofey Ballybofey ( , ; ) is a town located on the south bank of the River Finn (County Donegal), River Finn, County Donegal, Ireland. Together with the smaller town of Stranorlar on the north side of the River Finn (County Donegal), River Finn, the ...

to Sir Ralph Bingley. Bingley erected the original Drumboe Castle, which had four large towers. Its location protected a ford across the River Finn. After the death of Sir Ralph Bingley, his widow Lady Jane and Robert Harrington took charge until 1641, when it was granted to Sir William Bazil,

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish and then, from 1801 under the Acts of Union 1800, United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on ...

. He died in 1693. A descendant of Sir William Bazil was William Basil (who was born William Ball and changed name to Basil). Basil married Frances Dowdeswell around 1736. Their daughter Mary Basil married

Sir Samuel Hayes, 1st Baronet Sir Samuel Hayes, 1st Baronet (1737–1807) of Drumboe Castle, County Donegal was a Baronet in the Baronetage of Ireland and Member of Parliament for Augher in the Irish House of Commons between 1783 and 1790. Family Hayes’s father Charles Hay ...

, and through this marriage it became the home of the Hayes baronets, of Drumboe Castle, from 1789 to 1912.

Irish Civil War

It became the General Headquarters for the forces of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

in County Donegal during the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

. It is infamous for being the location of the Drumboe massacre during the

.Donegal & the Civil War: The Untold Story. Liam Ó Duibhir. Mercier Press Ltd, 20 Apr 2011 On 14 March 1923, four anti-Treaty IRA fighters, Charles Daly (26), Sean Larkin (26), Daniel Enwright (23), and Timothy O' Sullivan (23), who had been captured and held in the castle since January, were summarily shot in retaliation for the death of a National Army soldier in an ambush.

Demolition

The Georgian house was demolished in 1945.

References

Castles in County Donegal {{Donegal-geo-stub