In this cell the Red Hugh O'Donnell of Tyrconnel was kept as a prisoner for several years under Elizabeth.

He was young and lithe, however, and after his friends had tried in vain to buy him out, a happy thought one day struck him.

He squeezed himself through the loophole, and, dropping unhurt to the ground, escaped to the mountains.

There for a long time he made head against the English power.

In 1597 he drove Sir Conyers Clifford from before the castle of Ballyshannon, with great loss to the English, and when he could no longer keep the field, he sought refuge in Spain.