Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

Monea castle is one of Northern Ireland's iconic castles. It lies in gently undulating countryside, about 4 km to the west of Lough Erne. The major building work of the castle was carried out between 1616 and 1618. However, a Survey of 1619 noted that it was 'a strong Castle of Lime & Stone, being 54ft long & 20ft broad; but hath no Bawne unto it'. This 'Bawn', or outer defensive wall, was not completed until 1622. Its designer and first owner was Scotsman, Malcolm Hamilton, who started off as the Rector of Devenish, before being appointed Chancellor of Down in 1612. Things clearly went well for him as he was made archbishop of Cashel in 1623. But not too well, as Wikipedia records that in 1629 he 'died of an unknown infectious disease', which seems somehow unsettling ... but mostly for Malcolm! The subsequent history of the site has it passing back & forth between Irish and Colonist control for much of the 17th century. It appears to have burnt ...

  Killadeas is a little town in Co. Fermanagh, on the eastern shore of Lough Erne. In the little graveyard of the modern Church of Ireland church. Our little 360-degree tour starts near the large upright Early Christian Cross inscribed stone (with possible bullaun mortar holes on its the back), moves on the pillar/standing stone, past the cross-base (that looks like a large stone donut set on edge in the ground*), and onto the ‘Bishop’s Stone’. The latter has a depiction of a bishop – identified by his bell and crozier – on one broad side and a ’grotesque’ mask on a narrow side. The stone is dated to the Early Christian/Early Medieval period, around the 9th to 10th centuries. When the light is just right and the shadows fall in a particular way, the bishop appears to have a slight wistful smile and almost a twinkle in his ancient eye. I’ve visited this site on many occasions over the years and am always taken by his exquisite, pointy topped shoes. Taken together, these remnants i...

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 ...

The British Museum holds 57 items identified as coming from Co Tyrone, along with one each identified as from either Tyrone/Fermanagh and Tyrone/Derry~Londonderry. The majority of these (17) are assigned to the Neolithic/Bronze Age. The most common object type represented are axes (16). The two main material types represented in this assemblage are Metal (34) and Stone (22). < Table of Contents Neolithic/Bronze Age: Stone items Tyrone macehead 20050501.290 Stone macehead, partly perforated on both faces, round and disk-like shape, smooth surface, brown in colour. http://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1557166&partId=1 Tyrone axe 18431226.157 Polished stone axe, small. http://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1395642&partId=1 Cookstown, bog (near) axe 18431226.155 Polished stone axe. http://britishmuseum.org/research...