The Dun Earl was stabbed to death the next year in revenge for the murder.
The following legend is told regarding Walter de Burgo’s death. The Earl had a beautiful daughter who one day, in
GREENCASTLE, COUNTY DONEGAL.
crossing the sands on the shore under Benevenagh, became engulfed in quicksands, and was nearly losing her life when Sir Walter Burk’s son, who was serving in the army of O’Neill and O’Donnell, seeing her danger from the heights above rushed down and saved her from the peril.
The same year this young man was taken prisoner by the girl’s father in his war with the O’Donnells and starved to death at Greencastle. The Earl one day, during his unfortunate victim’s captivity, discovered his daughter carrying food to the prisoner, and seizing her by the hair, dragged her to the battlements and hurled her over on to the rocks below.
The fortress was for many years in possession of the O’Dohertys.