Bastioned fort in Rathquarter

The following details are derived from Gallagher and Legg (2012, 14) and Bolton, Dargan and Roche (2017) to which the reader is referred. The fort, known as ‘Green Fort’, was probably built by Conyers Clifford in 1599 on the site of earlier ringfort, Rath-da-bhritog. It is shown as a regular earthwork with four corner bastions on the north side of the Garvoge River on Baxter’s map c.1600. It is also marked on the Down Survey maps of the barony of Carbury and the parish of Calrie dating from c.1655-8. In 1656 it was described as an earthwork in poor condition and Thomas Phillips represents it as an abandoned earthwork in his prospect of Sligo drawn c. 1685. The Green Fort was incorporated into a network of defensive earthworks which enveloped Sligo town during the Williamite wars (1688-91) that also included the 'Stone Fort' (built late 1650s; see SL014-065007-) on the site of old de Burgo castle (SL014-065006-), a redoubt (SL014-065028-) and series of enveloping earthen ramparts with bastions. When the town was attacked by Brigadier Patrick Sarsfield and his Jacobite forces in early October 1689 the commanding Williamite officer, Colonel Thomas Lloyd, abandoned the town and brought his troops to the Green Fort from where they were able to escape to Enniskillen under cover of darkness (see SL014-065024-). After the Jacobites took Sligo, Colonel Henry Luttrell, with the aid of Robert Burton 'his Majesty's engineer', refortified the Green Fort and added additional outworks. The fort was incorporated into the extensive earthen defences which surrounded the town. A plan of the works drawn at this time (see attached) describes the fort as ‘newly fortified with a good Chemien, Court, and Glacis, well palisaded’, having a well ‘which is continually full of water’. In June 1690, Sir Tadhg O’Regan was appointed commander of the Jacobite forces at Sligo. He brought ordnance from the town to strengthen the Green Fort and made improvements to the town’s defences. Sligo was strategically important to the Jacobites, as control of the town secured north Connacht and provided them with a platform from which they could raid into Ulster. By the summer of 1691 Williamite encroachment on Sligo seemed inevitable after the success of their campaign that had seen the fall of Athlone in June, and the Jacobite defeat at Aughrim on 12 July. These victories early in the campaign season meant that the main Williamite force could now advance on the Jacobite strongholds of Connacht and Clare. On Saturday 12th September 1691 the Green Fort was attached by Williamite forces under Colonel John Michelburne who had noted that while Sligo had been reinforced, only a single company of grenadiers was stationed at the fort. Michelburne and his forces advanced rapidly to secure the defensive ditch and broke into the fort, causing the defenders to escape by jumping over the parapets and retreating to the Stone Fort (SL014-065007-) in the town. O'Regan was besieged in the Stone Fort, and with the arrival of further Williamite troops, he negotiated a surrender marching away with his garrison and two cannons on Monday 14 September. O'Reagan handed the keys of the Stone Fort to Michelburne who was appointed Governor of Sligo. The Williamite forces took possession of the Green Fort which had ‘sixteen other cannons mounted in the wall, and thirty barrels of gunpowder in the magazines, as well as stores of all kinds.’ The fort appears to have been abandoned relatively soon after the war. It was in a ruinous condition by 1739, by which time its military function had been superseded by the barracks erected in the early 1700s in the town. Forthill House was built adjacent to the site in the mid-eighteenth century and from this period onwards, the Green Fort appears to have lain abandoned and unused. It is not marked on Taylor and Skinners 1777 map of Sligo or William Larkin’s 1810 map. It is named the ‘Green Fort’ on the OS 1st ed. 6-inch map (surveyed 1837) and on all later editions and revisions where it is shown as an isolated but well-defined rectilinear fortification with salient-angled corner bastions. The monument lies on raised ground c. 30m north of Connaughton Road (R286) adjacent to the entrance of Sligo University Hospital. The remains are those of an earthen artillery fortification measuring approximately 86m N-S by 90m E-W externally, and 45m by 49m E-W internally, standing c. 3.9m high at its maximum, enclosing an area of approximately 7.7 acres/3100m2. The fort comprises a raised rectangular platform, with salient-angled corner bastions, encircled by angled earthen slopes and ditches. There are no standing remains or internal features visible within the fort (entrances, covered way, gun emplacements, well etc.) and there is no surface indication of outer defensive works. The monument now forms part of a field system and has no regular access path. The south and eastern sides of the fort including the south-east and south-west bastions feature mature hedgerows. The interior of the fort, the west and north banks, and the north-east and north-west bastions show grass cover, with wet boggy ground conditions found within the northern ditch and along the east side of the fort. A later field boundary intersects the south-west bastion at the south-west corner of the site. (Gallagher and Legg 2012, 14; Bolton, Dargan and Roche 2017) This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 2/1983). SL014-065014-_01.jpg Henry Luttrell's 1689 plan of the town and forts of Sligo, as re-drawn by Wood-Martin (1889, ii, facing 134) showing the Green Fort (arrowed), with the 'Stone Fort' (B; SL014-065007-) and the redoubt (O; SL014-065026-). Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 15 February 2018