Buncrana's O'Doherty’s Keep sold to private buyer before proposed auction

O'Doherty’s Keep, the 14th-century ancestral home of the Doherty clan, has been sold to a private buyer.

The sale was closed before a public online auction was due to take place on Thursday.

Sean Furey Auctioneers confirmed the building located in Buncrana's Swan Park had been sold for an undisclosed fee. 

It is believed that building was bought by a buyer from Derry.

The proposed auction of the building, which had a minimum value set at €175,000, had prompted calls for it to be bought by Donegal County Council to be turned into a historical and cultural attraction.

The council had said it was aware that O’Doherty’s Keep was for sale and noted “its conservation status as a National Monument under the guardianship of the State”. 

The property had been put on the market by its owner who had decided to pass the property, the founding site of Buncrana town, “on to a new generation of guardians”.

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In 2017 a local group announced plans to restore the keep and build a visitor and heritage centre at the site.

The three-storey rectangular keep dates back to the 14th century when it was built by the O'Dohertys. It is seen as the ancestral home of the clan.

The history of the keep includes that it was burned in 1608 by Crown forces in reprisal for the rebellion of Sir Cahir O'Doherty who sacked and raised the city of Derry.

In October 1798 Wolfe Tone, one of the founders of the United Irishmen, was arrested and held in the vicinity of the keep before being tried and convicted of treason in Dublin.