dun dealgan motte and bailey

Although the site is associated with the legendary hero CuChulainn, the present earthworks are a Norman motte and bailey built possibly by the de Verdons in the last 30 years of the 12th century. The walls of the square bailey are well preserved. The castle on top is a folly built by Patrick Byrne - a well-known pirate - in 1780, and as a wooden tower once crowned the motte, the tower gives some of what a motte with a tower must have originally looked like.