Tullaghoge

Tullaghoge Fort

In Ballymully Glebe townland, 2½ miles (4 km) south-south-east of Cookstown, east of the B162 Cookstown to Stewartstown road. The entrance is on a difficult corner, with a small car-park at the foot of the hill, from which an uphill path leads to the site. This magnificent hilltop enclosure commands wide views and, planted with trees, is visible from miles around. The site comes into historical prominence in the 11th century when it was a dynastic centre and inauguration place of the Cenél nEógain (later the O'Neills). It was the residence of the O'Hagans who, with the O'Cahans, performed the inauguration ceremony. The O'Hagan burial place, Donaghrisk, is the circular walled graveyard at the foot of the hill to the south-west. The earthwork is not

a defensive site, but rather a royal power centre. An inner embanked enclosure is separated from an outer bank by a wide, flat space, and there is no external ditch. The fort is shown in Bartlett's 1601 pictorial map with two gateways and two thatched buildings. The widow of a planter, Robert Lindsey, was living here in 1619, but the site was abandoned by 1622. The stone inauguration chair, visible on the 1601 map on the hillside to the south was broken up by the English Lord Deputy Mountjoy, advancing north against the O'Neills in 1602.