What is recorded here

Castle Tully stood on a low pasture rise where Faghne O’Farrell resided in 1570, overlooking the living land in every direction. It was burned during the 1396 attack recorded in the annals, yet the place remained a castle and manor through the early 1600s. Now only absent walls and a possible old earthwork remain beside the field, keeping the shape of a house that no longer answers knock.

On a low rise in pasture with good views in all directions. In 1396 the annals recorded an ‘attack by the Earl of March with Galls and Gaels on Clann Sheáin Í Fhearghail’ during which ‘he burned Tulach with its castle’(Ó Hinnse 1947, 175). In 1570 this was the residence of Faghne O’Farrell, also known as O’Farrell Bane’ (Farrell 1891, 28-9). In 1621 Fergus Farrall was granted ‘The castle and lands of Tully’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 538), which formed the manor of Tully. A castle is depicted in this townland on an early 17th-century map of Granard barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.i.47). Named ‘Castle ruins’ on the OS Fair Plan, where it is depicted as a walled rectangular structure with a gap in the NE wall. A rectangular enclosure shown immediately to its SW may be an associated bawn (LF015-016002-). Of the castle, the OS Name Book noted that ‘Only some old walls remain’ (OSNB, Granard parish, 1836-7, book 11, 231). No visible surface trace survives. A possible motte and bailey (LF015-016001-) lie c. 30m to the S. Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan Date of upload: 9 October 2012

The castle at Tully was held by Clann Sheáin Í Fhearghail in the late 14th century and was burned in 1396 during an attack led by the Earl of March with Galls and Gaels. It is remembered as a site of conflict involving Anglo-Norman and Gaelic forces in the Border regions of Ireland.

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