Westkopp — Fortified Headlands <$f Castles, S. Coast of Minister. 103 



lofty, headland, Power (or Poor) Head, juts into the sea. The long frontage 

 ends in abrupt cliffs to the eastward, and a stream-gully and short cove about 

 162 feet to the west gave the fort-builders a site which they strongly 

 fortified. The ancient Anglo-Norman family of Le Poher, De la Poer, or 

 Power, became well rooted in the neighbourhood. We find William le Poher 

 paying scutage in 1172, and with nine associates bringing fifty horses to 

 Ireland in 1184. : They owned Balycotyn not far to the east in 1277, and 

 witnessed the charter of Alan, Bishop of Cloyne, granting Ballyban to the 

 son of the Dean of Cloyne in that year. 2 John le Poher was sheriff of 

 Co. Cork in 1279 and 1287. I do not know any early occurrence of the 

 place-name ; it is Donpuer in certain Elizabethan maps, copied very corruptly 

 as " Doregnor " by Speed in 1610 ; this agrees with the local pronunciation, 

 " Doonpoor." 



The castle is said to have been built about 1595, and to have been 

 destroyed not long afterwards, 1601-2, by James, " Sugan Earl " of Desmond, 

 when its defenders were put to the sword or thrown over the cliff like 

 Eeymund's prisoners at Baginbun. Thomas Power of Inshiphearig, held 

 Downe Phearigg (Dun-power), and enfeoffed Patrick Cronyne with it in 1617 

 and 1618 without the king's licence. It is called Downy phearigge in a deed 

 of 1625. Power died January 16th the next year, leaving it to his own son 

 Edmond, with dower to his widow Ellena Power. 3 



The headland was defended by an inner stone-faced mound running 

 E.KE. and W.S.W., being 6 feet thick and 138 feet long in the 

 line of this wall and the fosse 10 feet wide. Before it a small peel-tower or 

 gatehouse was built, perhaps earlier than 1500, with walls 6 feet thick of good 

 slab masonry. It was 30 feet long and 17 feet wide, and stands 36 feet from 

 the east cliff. The tower has been levelled ; the wall is from 4 feet 4 inches 

 to 6 feet thick ; a fragment ending in window-jambs is 6 feet long and 10 feet 

 high ; the rest bends back 6 feet in 9 feet. There are no foundations in 

 the garth. The mounds between the three fosses have been levelled and 

 used for top-dressing on the adjoining farms, and all the stonework of the wall 

 and the debris of the tower have also been removed for building-material — 

 another slur on the farmers of south Cork. The second and third mounds 

 are parallel to the wall, and from 15 feet to 18 feet wide. The fosses are about 

 10 feet wide below, and now only a couple of feet deep as a rule; but in 

 parts, 4 feet to 5 feet deep, they are wet, having small springs in them ; the 



1 Cal. Documents, Ir., from Pipe Roll, xix Hen. II, R. ii, and xxxi Hen. II, No. 11. 



2 "Pipe Roll of Cloyne" (ed. R. Caulfield), p. 38 : see also Irish Pipe Rolls, vii Ed. I, 

 xvi Ed. I. 



3 Inquis. Chancery, No. 44, Charles I, April 5th, 1625. 



