Qualla: Dungiven Castle

Dungiven Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. Tom Jones once played here. So did Joe Dolan and The Dubliners. The Castle Ballroom extension, added to a 19th-century manor house in the 1950s, became one of the top showband venues in all of Ireland - a place where farm workers and shopgirls from across County Londonderry came to dance until two in the morning. Before that, the US Army used it as a base during the Second World War. Before that, the Skinners' Company of London leased it from the seventeenth century onwards. And today, Dungiven Castle houses Gaelcholáiste Doire - the second Irish-language secondary school in Northern Ireland, and the first outside Belfast. Few buildings in Ulster have changed costume so often and survived to take a bow.

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Image: Kenneth Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dungiven Castle: The Skinners' Lot

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Luney from Northern Ireland, CC BY 2.0. In 1610 James I ordered the twelve Great Livery Companies of London to undertake the plantation of the Ulster counties of Londonderry and Tyrone. The lands were divided by lot. The Worshipful Company of Skinners - one of London's medieval fur-trading guilds - drew lot number twel...

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Image: Richard Luney from Northern Ireland | CC BY 2.0

Dungiven Castle: The Castle You See Today

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit bixentro, CC BY 2.0. In 1794 Robert Ogilby, a lessee of the Skinners Company's estates, bought the Dungiven lease from the Careys. Fire had damaged Carey's old castle badly, and Ogilby chose to rebuild rather than repair. He built the structure that stands today on top of the older foundations - a fa...

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Image: bixentro | CC BY 2.0

Dungiven Castle: The American Years

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John O'Kane, CC BY-SA 2.0. MAGNET was the codename for the wartime movement of American troops to Northern Ireland - three infantry divisions, one armoured division, supporting service troops, and air units totalling approximately 158,700 men. The Americans needed buildings to occupy. Dungiven Castle, with...

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Image: John O'Kane | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dungiven Castle: The Dance Floor

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit bixentro, CC BY 2.0. After the Americans left, the castle found an unexpected second life. A new Castle Ballroom extension was added in the 1950s, and the venue began attracting the great showbands - tightly-rehearsed dance bands that dominated Irish popular music for two decades. Joe Dolan, who woul...

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Image: bixentro | CC BY 2.0

Dungiven Castle: The Irish-Language School

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit bixentro, CC BY 2.0. By the 1980s the castle had fallen into disrepair again. The National Trust considered buying it but declined when restoration was estimated at half a million pounds. Glenshane Community Development Limited eventually took it on, trying two hotelier tenants before finding the bui...

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Image: bixentro | CC BY 2.0