All the tower-houses visible around the Mizen Peninsula were O’Mahony possessions and all date from the fifteenth century. One hundred years of yielding territory to the ever-expanding Cambro-Normans taught the Irish clans a few lessons in how to fight them. The three dominant clans of the Irish southwestern peninsulas, the O’Sullivan Beres, O’Mahonys, and O’Driscolls, like the other Gaelic lords, had witnessed the effectiveness of the coloniser’s fortified structures. They imitated them, constructing their own coastal fortifications overlooking the sea. By the end of the medieval period, Ireland was more castellated than Britain. These tower houses represent a significant investment in time, money, and labour which would have had to be paid for by what the clans extracted in dues from the foreign fleets fishing in the waters they controlled, typically ten percent of the catch. Despite the land being poor the Clans would have had a good living from trade with sea-farers and pirates and from trading with and taxing the fishing fleets that regularly visited the waters surrounding their peninsula.

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