Siege of Dunboy

The ruins of Dunboy Castle

Date	5–18 June 1602
Location	Dunboy Castle, Beara Peninsula
Result	English victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of England

Irish alliance

Commanders and leaders

George Carew

Richard MacGeoghegan
Domenic Collins

Strength

5,000

143 in castle, more nearby

Casualties and losses

The Siege of Dunboy took place at Dunboy Castle on 5–18 June 1602, during the Nine Years' War in Ireland. It was one of the last battles of the conflict and was a victory for the English Army.

Dunboy Castle is situated near the town of Castletownbere, on the Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork, in south-western Ireland. It was a stone tower house, built to control and defend the harbour of Bearhaven, which was a stronghold of Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, a Gaelic clan leader and the 'Chief of Dunboy'.

O'Sullivan was part of a confederation of Gaelic leaders who had gone into rebellion against Elizabeth I of England. He was aided by King Philip III of Spain, who sent an invasion force to Kinsale under the command of Don Juan del Águila. After Águila had surrendered to the queen's Lord Deputy, Lord Mountjoy, in January 1602, O'Sullivan resolved to continue the fight and rallied his forces at Dunboy.

O'Sullivan first had to recover possession of his castle, which was garrisoned by a small force of Spanish troops under the command of a Captain Saavedra. In February, as part of the terms of Águila's surrender to Mountjoy, Saavedra was preparing to hand the castle over to English forces when he and his men were overpowered and disarmed by O'Sullivan (who later released them for transportation back to Spain). O'Sullivan kept all of their arms, ordnance and munitions, and immediately strengthened the castle in readiness for the inevitable assault. He left a force of 143 of his best men to defend the castle in his absence under the charge of Captain Richard MacGeoghegan and Friar Domenic Collins.

The English crown sent a 5000-strong army under the command of Sir George Carew, Lord President of Munster, to suppress the resistance. Carew also had the support of the English navy. But before the siege got under way, O'Sullivan himself and most of his forces had already marched to another of his fortresses, Ardea Castle, on the northern coast of the Beara promontory in order to secure money and supplies that had just arrived by ship from Spain.

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