Tullyhogue Fort
| Tullyhogue Fort | |
|
Tyrone | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Ringfort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | H82507428 |
| Location: | 54°36’36"N, 6°43’26"W |
| History | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | (State care) |
Tullyhogue Fort, also written Tullaghoge[1] is large mound on the outskirts of Tullyhogue village near Cookstown in Tyrone. The mound has a depressed centre and is surrounded by trees. It is an ancient ceremonial site where chieftains of the O'Neill dynasty of Tyrone were inaugurated.[2] It is within the townland of Ballymully Glebe.
The name of the place is from the Middle Irish Tulach Óc, meaning "hill of youth" or "mound of the young warriors"),[3]
The hill is today is a State Care Historic Monument sited[4] The inauguration site is a Scheduled Historic Monument at grid ref: H8251 7428.[5]
History
The date of the construction of Tullyhogue fort is not known; however, it is believed to have held great significance from early times, possessing a form of ritual importance long before the O'Neills became associated with the site.[6]
Tullyhogue ráth was originally associated with the Uí Tuirtri of Airgialla, and then with the O'Hagans between the 11th and 17th centuries.[2] The O'Hagans dwelt at the site and became its hereditary guardians, with their burial place at Donaghrisk situated at the bottom of the hill.[6] In the later mediæval period it became the inauguration site of the O'Neill dynasty, where the title An Ó Néill ('The O'Neill') was bestowed upon each new lord.[2][6] The inauguration was carried out by the heads of the O'Cahan and O'Hagan.[2] O'Cahan, the O'Neill's principal sub-chief, would throw a golden sandal over the new lord's head to signify good fortune. O'Hagan, being the hereditary guardian of Tullyhogue, would place the shoe on the O'Neill's foot and present him with a rod of office.[2][6]
Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, received the road at Tullyhogue in 1595; this was the last ever inauguration of an O'Neill, and brought upon the Earl the wrath and armies of Queen Elizabeth I.[6] In 1641, Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard began the Irish Rebellion in response to the Civil War in England. He intended to undergo an inauguration Tullyhogue and be declared ‘Earl of Tyrone’ to bolster his support, but it appears that this did not take place.[6]
Leac na Rí
The inauguration stone was a large boulder known as the Leac na Rí, which meant 'the flagstone of the kings'.[2] It stood outside Tullyhogue fort, where by the 16th century it had become incorporated into a ceremonial stone chair where three large slabs had been placed around it.[2][6]
In 1602 during the Nine Years War, Lord Mountjoy, in charge of the English forces at war with Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, smashed the inauguration stone to symbolically end the O'Neill's sovereignty.[2][6]
The Leac na Rí is stated as being the Ulster counterpart to the Stone of Destiny, which is now kept at Edinburgh Castle and is used as part of the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey during the Coronation of the British monarch.[6] The Leac na Rí is also stated as reputedly having been blessed by St Patrick; clearly a busy man to have got round all the stones, hills and streams of the island that claimed to have had Patrick’s personal blessing.[6]
Features
The initial impression of Tullyhogue fort is that it resembled an early Christian bivallate rath which was an enclosed homestead surrounded by two banks and ditches.[6] Tullyhogue matches this description in that it has an enclosure 105 ft in diameter that is encircled by two banks. Entry to it was by a causeway in the inner bank.[6] What makes it clear that it was not an enclosed homestead is that the two ditches were built wide apart with a flat area in between, with no outer defensive ditch.[6] The layout of the fort itself shows that it was not built or designed as a defensive structure, but as an area of ceremonial importance.[6]
Today
Tullyhogue Fort has become a popular tourist destination. In 1998, Don Carlos O'Neill, a Spanish descendant of Hugh O'Neill, started an annual event that takes place in August each year whereby he and his family commemorate the inauguration ceremony of the O'Neills on the spot were his predecessors were crowned.[7]
In 2007 the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development sold the land required to develop Tullyhogue Fort to the local council for £90,000.[8]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Tullyhogue Fort) |
References
- ↑ Discover Northern Ireland: Tullaghoge Fort
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Connolly, S. J.: 'Oxford Companion to Irish History', page 584-5 (Oxford University Press, 2007)
- ↑ "Tullyhogue Fort". Triskelle. http://www.triskelle.eu/attractions/tullyhoguefort.php?index=100.040.008.090.030. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
- ↑ "Ballymully Glebe". Environment and Heritage Service – State Care Historic Monuments. http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/state_care_monuments_2007.pdf. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
- ↑ "Ballymully Glebe". Environment and Heritage Service – Scheduled Historic Monuments. http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/scheduled_monuments1to31mar07.pdf. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 "Tullaghoge Fort". The Chrono Centre – Queens University Belfast. http://www.chrono.qub.ac.uk/local/tyrone/Tullaghoge/. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
- ↑ "Tullyhogue Fort". Culture Northern Ireland. http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/1213/Tullyhogue/0/0/1/tullyhogue-fort. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
- ↑ "Tullyhogue Fort". Cookstown District Council – Minutes of 13 February 2007 Meeting. http://www.cookstown.gov.uk/aboutthecouncil/councilminutes/2007/13february2007stat.pdf. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
- Dillon, Myles: 'The consecration of Irish kings', in Celtica 10 (1973): 1–8.
- FitzPatrick, Elizabeth, "An Tulach Tinóil"
- FitzPatrick, Elizabeth: 'Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–1600: A Cultural Landscape Study' (Boydell Press. 2004)
- Mitchel, John: 'The Life and Times of Aodh O'Neill, Prince of Ulster' (Excelsior Catholic Publishing House, 1879)
- Nicholls, K. W.: 'Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages' (Lilliput Press 2005)