Tullaghan Castle

At a cliff-edge on the summit of Tullaghan Hill, a prominent rocky peak that rises from a bog-covered plateau NE of Coolaney, in the Ox Mountains. The fort has excellent views and overlooks a mountain pass to NW. A roughly D-shaped area (21m E-W; 19m N-S) defined E-W by two concentric stone walls and on the straight N side by a flat lip of bedrock marking the top of the cliff-face. The inner wall (Wth 2.5m) is collapsed and partially obscured by sod. External wall-facing is evident in places consisting of two to four courses (H 1.2m) of horizontally laid slabs. Outside the wall SW-W is a sod-covered spread (Wth 3m) of stones. A section of the wall at E has been rebuilt and there is a large break (Wth 7m) SSE-SW. There is a possible entrance (Wth 0.95m) at SE, flanked by two stone blocks. On top of the wall at SW is a possible penitential cairn (SL026-001004-). The remains of the outer wall are located 13-18m downslope of the inner wall and the intervening ground slopes down steeply apart from SE-W where it levels out to a natural terrace. The basal courses of the outer wall (Wth 1.55m; H 0.5m) are evident SW-W and are moss-covered. Elsewhere it is marked only by a slightly raised line of moss and heather. A field wall (SL026-001002-), barely discernible as a line of stones protruding through the sod, extends on a NE-SW axis between the inner and outer fort walls, continuing outside the fort limit as a cropmark following a natural scarp or contour to NW, then down the hillside to W. The interior is level but the surface is uneven, stony and obscured by overgrowth including a dense thicket of blackthorn bushes in the SE quadrant. Slightly W of centre are two parallel linear stone walls (L c. 9m; Wth c. 1m; long axis N-S), 1.4m apart. A cross-wall (long axis NW-SE) may connect them at the S. Close to the fort wall at W is a sunken linear trench (L c. 5m; Wth 0.5m; D 0.4m). At the base of the cliff, 12-15m N of the cliff-face is a wall (Wth 1m; H 1.7m on N side), roughly constructed of boulders, which extends for 25m E-W linking two rock outcrops that project from the E and W ends of the cliff. The space between the cliff and the wall appears to be a natural terrace and, beneath dense overgrowth, is covered in stones and boulders. There is a holy well (SL026-001003-), the Hawke's Well, between the inner and outer fort walls on the E side. A possible Man-made underground passage (SL026-001007-) lies in the W half.