Archaeology 360: Tully Castle, Co Fermanagh
Belatedly, continuing the tale of the Chapple Family excursion through mid Ulster, we visited the picturesque ruins of Tully Castle on the shores of Lough Erne, in Fermanagh. Tully is a fortified house and bawn built in 1619 for Sir John Hume, a Scottish planter, having dispossessed the native Maguires of their land. Twenty-two years later, during the 1641 Irish Rebellion, Rory Maguire decided to take back those lands. He arrived with his forces at Tully on Christmas Eve to discover that most of the males of the household were absent and the castle was quickly surrendered to him. While the members of the Hume family were escorted away, Maguire ordered the murder of some 75 others and had the castle burnt. Understandably, it was never inhabited again. By the 1970s it looked close to collapse but has been sensitively conserved and is well worth a visit, though the knowledge the so many met a violent end here does seem to add a haunting feeling to the place. Most of the photos you'll ...