Donore Castle, Medieval tower house in County Meath, Ireland.

Donore Castle is a three-storey tower house of 7.3 by 6.3 metres at the base, rising 12 metres, with rounded corners and a projecting round tower at one corner holding a spiral staircase. The lower floor has a vaulted roof, the upper floors a fireplace and a mural garderobe, and the ceilings rested on corbels. A murder hole sits at roof level above the entrance door.

The castle was built in the 1430s by the Mac Eochagáin family after King Henry VI of England supported funding for defensive towers in Ireland. This was part of a broader strategy to strengthen English control in County Meath.

Above the entrance doorway are carved stone heads of a king and a bishop, still legible on the ruin. The doorway also sits below a murder hole at roof level, an opening through which defenders could drop material on attackers. The castle is a National Monument and is known in Irish as Caiseal Dhún Uabhair.

Donore Castle stands on the north bank of the Boyne, south of the R161 and just upriver of its meeting with the Enfield Blackwater, south of Ballivor. It is a National Monument ruin with no visitor facilities, so approach on foot and view the three-storey tower from outside. Look for the projecting round tower at one corner and the murder hole above the entrance door.

The 1650 assault by Sir John Reynolds's Cromwellian troops killed over 40 members of the McGeoghegan family, not the roughly 40 often quoted. The castle's name is rendered Caiseal Dhún Uabhair in Irish, and a murder hole sits at roof level above the entrance door.