2009:377 - TULLY CASTLE, Fermanagh

The castle at Tully was constructed between 1610 and 1618–1619 for Sir John Hume, a Scottish lord, who had received a grant of land in 1610 as part of the Plantation of Ulster. The castle is T-shaped, two storeys high, with a pitched roof set within a rectangular bawn some 100ft square. The castle was built at the northern end of the bawn, which had square flankers on each corner with a curtain wall running between. The entrance was located at the south, opposite the castle.
The castle was occupied for less than 30 years. In December 1641 the castle was occupied by Rory Maguire, who had failed in earlier attempts to capture both the castles at Enniskillen and Monea. While he approached Tully Castle with a force of 800, the inhabitants of the nearby Tully village fled to the castle for protection. On Christmas Eve, Lady Hume, in an attempt to ensure the safety of those who took refuge in the castle, came to an agreement with Maguire to surrender the castle in return for safe passage to either Monea or Enniskillen for those sheltering within. Once the agreement had been reached, the gates to Tully were opened and Maguire seized the castle without a shot being fired. Those within the castle were disarmed and their possessions confiscated. The women and children were locked overnight in the vault while the men, stripped and bound hand and foot, were forced to spend the night lying in the courtyard. The following morning, Christmas day, Lady Hume and her family were taken to a nearby barn before being allowed to proceed to Monea Castle, where it was presumed the remainder of those within the castle would follow. Maguire however, broke his promise of safe passage and slaughtered all sixteen men and 69 women and children who were still in the castle. He then proceeded to burn both the village of Tully and the castle, neither of which were rebuilt after the attack.
The excavation was necessitated by the identification of a drainage problem at the site. Due to a lack of drainage within the castle, water had been percolating through the foundations into the vault and then seeping up the walls into the mortar centring of the vault. In order to alleviate the problem the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) proposed to insert a pipe to drain any water away from the outer (northern) wall of the castle before it has a chance to seep through the foundation. At the request of NIEA, a small excavation was undertaken in advance of the drainage works.
The main purpose of the excavation was to clear an area to the north, against the outer wall of the castle, to facilitate the insertion of a drain. A second aim was to investigate a small area of grass against the outer face of the eastern bawn wall in an attempt to discover any garden archaeology associated with the castle.
A total of nine trenches were excavated during the investigation on the site. Trench 1 was located against the outer face of the eastern bawn wall, with Trenches 2–9 excavated to investigate the area of the proposed drainage pipe.
Trench 1 investigated the potential for garden features/vegetable plots that may have existed at this location. The investigation revealed little conclusive evidence for any such features associated with the castle. A small scarp that was uncovered provides evidence for some slight alteration being made to this area but its nature remains elusive, although the possibility that it is the remnants of a small flower bed/vegetable plot cannot be ruled out. This excavation also allowed for the foundations to the bawn wall to be investigated, where it was shown that there was a complete lack of substantial foundations.
The excavation of Trenches 2–9 revealed that the walls of the castle, bawn and flanker had all been dug through a pre-existing topsoil level. Only the main castle wall appears to have had any significant foundations, while the bawn and flankers where built directly upon the subsoil with no attempt to provide a substantial footing. Also uncovered was an open drain running east–west parallel to the northern castle wall, probably contemporaneous with the castle. This drained to the west where it met a second drain that ran below a short section of bawn wall that lay between the castle and the north-western flanker of the bawn. It was also located c. 0.6–0.8m out from the castle wall and would have captured water running off the overhanging eaves of the thatched castle roof. Artefacts recovered from this drain included several sherds of brown-glazed earthenware pottery, window glass and two strips of window lead, presumably from windows in the castle, along with burnt and butchered animal bone.
Following the completion of the excavation, the insertion of the drainage pipe was allowed to proceed.