castles historical tyrone

Within the grounds of the Servite Monastery in Benburb are the remains of one of the more dramatically sited of all inland monuments in Northern Ireland. Its cliff-site controlling the crossing of the River Blackwater had been fortified by Shane O'Neill during the course of the 16th century, but what remains on the site is a castle built after the defeat of Gaelic opposition, when the new planters were staking their claim to the lands which James I had granted to them. By building this castle...

Three storeys high, it consists of a central square tower with stout rounded towers at each corner, all of them well endowed with gun-loops. The exterior walls have a string-course above each floor, and there is an arch at the top of the south wall of the central tower. There are fireplaces in the first and second floors and, as that in the first floor is larger, were may presume that the main living quarters for the family were on the first floor. Note the small head carved on a stone under...

Mountjoy Castle is a ruined fort with four rectangular corner towers not far from Washing Bay. It was built in 1602 and was garrisoned during the Willianite wars....

The Harry Avery who gave his name to the castle was Henry Aimbreidh O'Neill, who died in 1392. The castle, commanding the valley of the River Derg close to Newtownstewart, was probably - though not certainly - built by him, and is unusual in being a stone castle located within what was Gaelic Ulster at the time. Even more curious are the two towers visible from afar which give the impression of being a gate-tower of an earlier century guarding the access to the castle ward behind them (like th...

Killymoon Castle, a Norman revival castle designed for the Stewarts in 1802 by John Nash, the celebrated English architect (1752-1835)....