| The only attraction to the tourist in Donegal is the old castle, once the residence of the O'Donnells. This ruin stands on the margin of the river, and is somewhat peculiar in form. It is inclosed by the river on one side, and on the others by an almost semicircular wall, where was probably the entrance. The edifice consists of an oblong building of three stories, and a vast pile of five stories, connected with the northern end of the former at right angles. The oblong has now neither roof nor floor above the ground; but its windows (of the square gothic kind) and chimneys are sufficiently entire. The square pile is composed, on the ground floor, of a vast vaulted apartment; from one corner of which rises a narrow spiral staircase, communicating with what was, no doubt, the banquetting hall, by a small arched door-way of sculptured stone. The principal access to this story, however, seems to have been by a stair ascending from the interior of the oblong building. There are now no vestiges of the steps, but the door-way into the hall, which is arched with cut stone, is entire. The hall appears to have been a magnificent room, with a noble bay window at one end, and an immense chimney, richly adorned with the O'Donnell arms, and other sculpture. The chimney is not in the middle of the wall, but nearer the bay // window; while at the other end there is a smaller chimney, which leads one to suppose that that which seems now one vast apartment was formerly divided into a larger and a smaller one. The rooms above, being without floor or roof can be distinguished only by their windows and chimneys. There is no door-way leading directly into the square pile, which may be called the keep. One with a Saxon arch — the only specimen of this arch in the edifice — enters the oblong building close by the keep, and was intended no doubt to communicate with the vaulted story ; but another, and evidently the principal entrance, is situated near the farther end of the same building, so that the guests going to the banquetting hall would have to pass through a suite of rooms. Upon the whole this is one of the most beautiful ruins of the kind I have seen. At the end of the oblong, opposite to the keep, there is another mass of buildings, of which it is impossible to tell what was the extent; although, from the less careful architecture, it is probable that they contained the offices and servants' rooms. In the annexed beautiful view, the spectator is supposed to stand on the opposite side of a bridge, which here spans the river. [Vol. II, p. 157-158] |
