In the 15th century the Ó Dubhda held a defensive line of ten castles along the lower River Moy and the Sligo-Mayo coast. From Killala Bay in the west to Sligo Bay in the east, the family controlled one of the most fertile coastal corridors in Connacht: the salmon weirs of the Moy, the cattle plains of Tireragh, and the Atlantic fisheries off Downpatrick Head.

The castles weren’t ornament. They were a system.

Ardnaglass guarded the inland approach. Castleconnor held the southern bank of the Moy estuary. Enniscrone and Roslee faced the open Atlantic. Rathlee and Tanrego anchored the eastern flank toward Sligo. Ardnarea, on the Mayo bank opposite present-day Ballina, was for centuries the working capital of the Lords of Tireragh.

Most of these castles are ruins today. Some are foundations only. One – Enniscrone – sits beside a thriving seaside town that still bears our presence in its very name. We document every one on the site, with surveys, photographs, and the historical record from MacFirbis through O’Reilly.

The river is still ours – in name, in memory, and in the slow, patient work of getting our story back into the public record. The shore is still ours to walk.

Walk the wall of castles →

We are Ó Dubhda. We’re rebuilding the clan online at odubhda.org.