The Enniscrone Mound

Where the clan inaugurated its Taoiseach in 2025

In the Castle Field at Enniscrone, beside the surviving west range of Enniscrone (O’Dowda) Castle, the clan inaugurated Sean O’Dowda Stephens as its ninth modern Taoiseach on 9 October 2025. The ceremony had been planned for the ancient inauguration mound on Coggins’ Hill; at the last minute it was moved here.

The Castle Field lies in the townland of Carrowhubbuck South, Civil Parish of Kilglass, Co. Sligo. The on-site interpretive panel records four monuments in and around the Castle Field ‐ the castle itself, two possible megalithic tombs, Valentine’s Church, and a ring fort – the kind of deep, multi-period layering characteristic of Irish ritual landscapes.

I. The Castle Field

The Castle Field lies on a ridge above the Moy estuary in Carrowhubbuck South. The ring fort and possible megalithic tombs recorded on the interpretive panel place activity here in the prehistoric and early medieval periods, long before the fortified house whose west range still stands ‐ a two-storey house with attics and round corner towers, raised on the ruins of the earlier castle in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.

II. The 2025 Inauguration

On 9 October 2025, beside Enniscrone Castle, Sean O’Dowda Stephens was inaugurated as the ninth modern Taoiseach of the Ó Dubhda Clan. Enniscrone has been the clan’s home ground since the revival: the second and third modern Taoisigh were inaugurated at Enniscrone Castle in 2003 and 2006, and the triennial Clan Rally meets in the town.

A young rowan (Sorbus aucuparia / caorthann) sapling was planted at the gate of the castle in the Castle Field on the same day — a deliberate echo of the ancient Rowan of Dubhros from Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne, whose berries were said to grant second youth, and whose tree stood at the heart of Uí Fhiachrach territory. The clan treats the planting as a living symbol of the revived Taoiseach-ship. See The Rowan Tree for the mythological background.

III. Visiting

The Castle Field and the surviving castle are reached on foot by the walkway described on the Enniscrone Castle page. The field is in community ownership; please follow the visitor guidance there and respect the signage on site.