At the mouth of the River Inagh, where the estuary opens to Liscannor Bay, stand the scant remains of Dough Castle — from the Irish Dumhach (“sandbank/dune”). Once a watch on the ford and shoreline approaches to Lahinch, the tower rose from shifting ground that has shaped its fate for centuries.

Tradition places the foundation in the early 1300s under the O’Connors of Corcomroe, controlling river and coastal traffic. In later centuries it fell into the sphere of the O’Briens of Thomond. Erosion and structural failure did the rest; large sections collapsed over time, and today only a fragment of the tower survives on land now incorporated into Lahinch Golf Course beside the river mouth.

Locals speak of Donn Dumhach, the Fairy King of the Sandbank, whose realm is the dunes and shifting bars below the ruin. On certain nights, indistinct figures are glimpsed crossing the sand against the wind; voices carry over the estuary when no one is there; pale lights drift along the tideline. A tall watcher is sometimes seen on the broken tower, as if counting the turn of the tide.

Reports cluster around the tower stump, the sandbank/dunes, and the river edge at low water. As with much dune-country lore in Clare, identities are unfixed and dates unrecorded — the stories cling to the place rather than to names.