Dunmanus Castle

Dunmanus Castle, County Cork
Photo © Mike Searle, 6 July 2007

Dunmanus Bay is a bay in County Cork, Ireland. The bay lies between Mizen Head to the south and Bantry Bay to the north with the small village of Durrus a the head of the bay. The bay is out of the main tidal flow with no significant rivers flowing into it and is little frequented by vessels. On the eastern shore of the bay are the ruins of Dunmanus Castle built by the O'Mahony clan. To the south, Dunlough Castle, an earlier O'Mahony fortification, stands atop the cliffs at the northern perch of the Mizen peninsula.

Built in 1430 by Donough Mór O'Mahony, this was one of fourteen castles built by the O'Mahonys, and one of the largest and best maintained.

Battle of Kinsale and Carew's Assault on Dunboy Castle 1602/Dunmanus Castle

The army of Carew embarked at Kilevanoge to lay siege to Dunboy Castle on the opposite shore. Later on Carew and Mountjoy employed the services of Aongus O Dalaigh of Kilcrohane the prime satirist of the times to compose a satire on 'The Tribes of Ireland'. He was stabbed in 1617 by one of the O'Meaghers of Tipperary as a result of one of his satires.

After the battle of Kinsale the O'Mahony family garrisoned Dunmanus castle and on the 4th June 1602 one of Carew's officers accompanied by one of Sir Owen O'Sullivan's sons raided the castle and kept same killing four of the guard. The O'Mahonys regained the castle but in July Captain Robert Harvey recovered it, but the previous March the under aged ward of Carew Donal O'Mahony succeeded as chief on his brother's death. As a minor and not taking part in the rising his lands were safe from forfeiture and the O'Mahonys continued to hold the castle. However, following the 1641 rising and the raid on Sir William Hull's fish palace involving the O'Mahonys of Dunmanus the lands comprising 1,594 acres (6.45 km2) were confiscated, taking effect in 1649.