approach the garrison set alight three of their houses near the castle,
and opened fire on the troops, wounding two soldiers and a boy.
When surrender was demanded they replied to Captain Lea that even if
every soldier was a Deputy they would hold out.
Captain Izod was detailed to see none of them escaped by the bog. Sir
William visited the watch at midnight, and hearing there were women in
the castle sent the garrison word that he would begin the attack next
morning with fire and sword, and told them to send the women away, but
they refused.
In the morning one of the soldiers threw a fire brand on the thatched
roof of the castle, which set it alight, and at the same time a bonfire
was lighted at the door, which smothered many of the inmates. A breach
was soon made in the walls, and those who had not been suffocated were
hurled over the battlements.
Forty-six persons were killed, two women and a boy being alone saved
by the Deputy’s command. Most of the garrison were O’Maddens, but a
Captain M’Coleghan and his two sons were also amongst the slain.
Some accounts give the number executed as 140.
The O’Madden’s territory was forfeited after the rebellion of 1641,
and in 1683 Cloghan was granted to Garrett Moore, who claimed to be
descended from Rory Oge O’Moore, Chief of Leix.
His almanac, or diary, was found in the castle, dated 1699. It contains
entries of lead got for repairing the fortress. It also records methods
of making expanding bullets and noiseless powder, as well as other
strange information.
After the battle of Aughrim troops from Birr took possession of the
castle, and it was garrisoned under the command of Lieutenant Archibald
Armstrong.
In the middle of last century it was purchased by Dr. Graves, and is
at present in the possession of his descendant, Robert Kennedy Crogan
Graves, Esq.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Donovan, “Annals of the Four Masters.”
Cooke, “History of Birr.”
J. Wright, “King’s County Directory.”
Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.”
Proceedings of Kilkenny Archæological Society.
[Illustration: OLD CROM CASTLE.]
_CROM CASTLE_
This castle is situated in the parish of Galloon, Barony of Coole,
County Fermanagh. It stands on the east bank of Lough Erne, about
sixteen miles from Enniskillen.
The name Crom, or Crum, signifies “sloping” or “crooked.”
The remains of the chief walls form a square of about 50 feet, which
does not coincide with the measurements given in several inquisitions.
Some of the stones have evidently been carried off for building
purposes since the building was burnt in 1764.
The position of the castle was commanded by wooded hills, and it is
built so near the shore that the waves dash against it in winter time.
It seems to have had no outer ring of defences, and it is therefore
even more wonderful how it should have been successfully defended in
two sieges.
The marks of the cannonading are now covered by a heavy growth of ivy.
Michael Balfour, laird of Mountwhany in Fifeshire, began to erect the
fortress in 1611, when granted the manor of Crum, under the plantation
scheme of Ulster.
In 1616 he sold the property to Sir Stephen Butler, and in 1619
Nicholas Pynnar describes Crum as follows: “Upon this proportion there
is a bawne of lime and stone, being 60 feet square, 12 feet high with
two flankers. Within the bawne there is a house of lime and stone.”
The Rev. George Hill states that the castle was built by Butler and
Balfour at great expense, so it is likely to have been added to after
it changed hands.
In 1629 another inquisition describes it as “One bawne of stone and
lime, containing 61 feet every way and 15 feet in height; and within
the same is one castle, or capital messuage, built in like manner of
lime and stone containing 22 feet each way.”
Crum was leased to Dr. James Spottiswood, Bishop of Clogher, in 1624.
It must for a short time after this have been possessed by the
M’Manuses, who offered it for sale at £100 and 100 cows. Among the
State Papers of 1646 is preserved Sir William Cole’s petition to
the Commissioners to be advanced £160, so that he might become the
purchaser. He promises to return the money if unsuccessful, and says it
is the only hold the rebels have in the country and “a place of good
strength.” The money appears to have been sent.
We find, however, in 1645, that it is mentioned in Bishop Spottiswood’s
will, and through his daughter marrying Colonel Abraham Creichton the
leasehold passed to that family.
It was afterwards converted into a perpetuity, subject to a small head
rent, which was bought out by the Earl of Erne in 1810 from Brinsley,
4th Earl of Lanesborough, a descendant of Francis Butler.
In the struggle for the Crown between James and William, Crum was twice
unsuccessfully besieged.
It was a place of considerable importance, as it commanded the waterway
between Enniskillen and Belturbet.
The first attempt was made in March, 1689.
Colonel Abraham Creichton, although an old man, had fortified the
castle and garrisoned it with his tenants and retainers. Lord Galmoy
arrived at Belturbet with a considerable force belonging to King
James’s army, but found the roads so boggy as to be impassable for
cannon. He therefore decided to make some mock guns by which to
frighten the garrison into submission.
They were manufactured out of tin, measured about a yard long and 8
inches in the bore. They were bound together with fine cord twisted
round them, and the whole covered with a kind of buckram to represent
the colour of a real cannon.
To this sham artillery sixteen horses were harnessed and they were
brought to Crum with a great show of difficulty and much apparent
urging of the animals.
As soon as they were within ordinary range of the fortress Lord Galmoy
demanded its surrender, and upon being refused he tried to fire one
of his fraudulent guns with a wooden bullet, but it burst and nearly
killed the gunner.
He then began a systematic siege and sent messengers to Enniskillen to
demand that garrison’s surrender too.
The governor of the town at once despatched two hundred firelocks to
relieve the castle of Crum. Some were sent by water and some by land
during the night, but daylight had arrived before they reached their
destination.
The besiegers opposed their landing, but nevertheless they forced their
way into the castle with the loss of only one boatman, while Lord
Galmoy’s party lost several.
A sally was at once made from the fortress, and the besiegers were
driven from their trenches with a loss of thirty or forty men, and
the garrison captured the mock guns and took two suits of armour and
several other valuable things.
Lord Galmoy then retreated to Belturbet.
Colonel Creichton’s son David, then a lad of eighteen, greatly
distinguished himself during the conflict.
Although the castle was unprovided with cannon, great execution was
done by the long fowling-pieces generally used for wild fowl on the
lake.
Lord Galmoy was standing on a hill about an English mile distant from
the castle, with a glass of wine in his hand, which he was about to
drink to the confusion of the garrison, when a fowler from the fortress
shattered the glass he was raising and killed the man beside him.
At this time a Captain MacGuire was prisoner at Crum, and Lord Galmoy
proposed to Colonel Creichton to exchange Captain Dixey for him. This
was agreed to, but when MacGuire was sent, Lord Galmoy, instead of
returning Dixey, had him hanged with a cornet named Charleton.
Captain MacGuire was so disgusted with the treachery that he returned
to Crum and threw up his commission in James’s army.
Lord Galmoy also enticed Colonel Creichton to a parley, and would have
put him to death, too, had not Lord Mountcashel rescued the old man and
conducted him safely back to his castle.
The following year Crum was again besieged, and Colonel Creichton sent
an urgent message to Enniskillen to say that the besiegers had brought
cannon with them. The next day he sent another message saying that
Lieutenant-General MacCarthy had begun to batter the fortress.
This was Monday, and Colonel Wolseley returned answer that they should
be relieved on Wednesday, and in the meantime he despatched orders for
reinforcements to Ballyshannon.
A strong detachment set out, therefore, from Enniskillen to the
castle’s relief, but upon their approach the enemy withdrew to
Newtownbutler, where a great engagement was fought that shattered the
cause of James II. in the north of Ireland. The garrison of Crum Castle
greatly distinguished themselves in this engagement.
The David Creichton, who was eighteen at the time of the siege,
finally succeeded his nephew in the estate. He left an only son, who
was created Lord Erne, and it was in his lifetime that the castle was
burnt.
A letter from Lord Shannon, dated September 1, 1764, is still in the
family’s possession, in which he condoles with his kinsman for the
destruction of his castle. “Unhappy indeed to be consumed by a few
accidental sparks of fire when it had so bravely withstood the firing
of 6,000 men so many years ago.”
To the south of the fortress along the side of the lake lay the castle
gardens, in the centre of which still grows a magnificent yew-tree,
under which tradition records an O’Neill and his lady-love parted in
the reign of Oueen Elizabeth upon the former being attainted for high
treason.
Henry, however, writing in 1739, says it was only planted about seventy
years previously. It is 25 feet in height, while the trunk is 12 feet
in girth. The circumference of the branches is 120 feet.
It was the custom for many years for sportsmen on the lake to fire
a salute when passing the ruined fortress, which produced a most
wonderful echo, as if the shot had been answered by a volley.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
The Earl of Erne, “Crom Castle” in _Ulster Journal of Archæology_.
King, “Henry’s Upper Lough Erne in 1739.”
Latimer, “Actions of the Enniskillen Men.”
Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.”
State Papers.
Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries.
_DOE CASTLE_
This fortress is situated at the extremity of a small Donegal bay
called Sheephaven, in the Barony of Kilmacrenan, about a mile east of
Creeslough. It was the chief stronghold of the MacSweenys, and derives
its name from MacSweeny Doe or MacSweeny “of the districts.”
The castle is built on a projecting rock, surrounded by the waters
of the inlet upon the north, east, and south, while on the west its
entrance was guarded by drawbridge and portcullis, as well as a fosse
filled with sea-water.
A modern house is attached to the old fortress, which has a rectangular
tower, and a circular donjon used as a dairy in modern times.
M’Parland, writing in 1802, in his statistical survey, records that the
castle was fortified with a strong tower by the grandfather of the then
MacSweeny of Dunfanaghy.
There seems to be no record of the erection of the fortress, and
different authorities ascribe its building to various persons. Manus
Oge says Doe was erected by Nachton O’Donnell for one of his seven sons
at the same time that the castles of Burt, Inch, and Ramelton were
built, while M’Parland accredits a lady named Quinn with its erection,
who married a M’Swine, shortly before Elizabeth came to the throne.
Dr. Allman believes it dates from about the beginning of Henry VIII.’s
reign, and tradition states that Doe passed to the MacSweenys in the
fifteenth century, when a peace was concluded between O’Neill and
O’Donnell in 1440.
Red Hugh O’Donnell lived at Doe Castle with his foster father, Owen
Oge MacSweeny, and it was while in his care that he was kidnapped at
Rathmullen by Sir John Perrott in 1588.
Sir Hugh MacSwine na Oge, surnamed the Red, was one of Queen
Elizabeth’s chief favourites, and a polished courtier. Very different,
however, was the last of the MacSwines who occupied Doe Castle.
This was Sir Miles MacSweeny of the Club, who was knighted by Oueen
Elizabeth, and about whom tales of great brutality are recorded.
He was called “of the club” from his bludgeoning the better classes of
his clan to death with his own hand if they offended him, while the
poorer ones he consigned to a retainer called Furey and his satellites
to hang from the castle walls.
A legend is told of how his beautiful daughter, Eileen, fell in love
with Turlogh Oge, son of The O’Boyle, against her father’s wish. The
lovers used to meet on the beach and in the woods near the castle.
Her father discovered their trysts and confined her to the fortress
under the care of a worthy matron. The young people were thus reduced
to signalling to each other--the maiden from the battlements, and her
lover from his canoe in the bay. This became known to The MacSweeny,
and with two boats of armed men he waylaid the young man and a few
retainers on their way back from Lackagh, and brought them prisoners to
the castle.
Here he starved them to death, and as the bodies were being carried to
the graveyard the fair Eileen saw and recognised her lover. She never
recovered the shock and grief, and not long afterwards she was found
dead on the top of one of the castle towers.
Fishermen say that the spirits of the ill-fated pair haunt the bay, and
by moonlight a phantom skiff may sometimes be seen skimming the waters
containing the two ghostly lovers.
The castle was included in a grant of lands made by James I. to the
Earl of Tyrconnell.
In 1607 it was seized by Caffer O’Donnell and Neale M’Swine with some
followers. These young discontents alleged as their reason an old
grievance against the Earl, who was given authority by the Lord Deputy
and Council to march against them.
Accordingly Sir Richard Handson, the Earl, and Sir Neale O’Donnell
arrived before the stronghold, when some of the offenders submitted,
and some were taken and hanged. Sir Neale O’Donnell was badly hurt in
the fray.
In the State Papers Sir Arthur Chichester advises that the troublesome
youths should be given grants of lands as the best way of making them
peaceful subjects. It is also recommended that the castle should be
garrisoned by the King’s men.
The latter was evidently done, as shortly afterwards the Earl of
Tyrconnell lodged a complaint against Captain Brook and his men being
quartered in the castle with privileges, after he (the Earl) had in
person expelled the discontents.
The following year (1608) Doe was again lost to the English in the
rebellion of Sir Cahir O’Doherty. It was in charge of a man named
Vaughan and six warders, when a cowherd and a friar arriving with the
tale that a body of wolves had set upon the cattle, they easily managed
to draw six of them from the stronghold, who were at once killed, and
the castle seized and garrisoned for the enemy.
A party was organised to retake it, and in the encounter with the
rebels Sir Cahir was killed.
The castle was captured by Sir Oliver Lambert, and it was said to be
“the strongest hold in all the province, which endured a hundred blows
of the demi-cannon before it yielded.”
Captain Elling was then appointed constable, and £76 13s. 4d. was
granted him towards repairing the damage done by the cannon in the
siege.
At this time it had a garrison of fifty men.
Sir Richard Bingley was appointed constable in 1610, and at the same
time received a grant of land in the county. After this there seems to
have been a succession of constables until it was captured by the Irish
in 1641. Owen Roe O’Neill landed here the following year from Dunkirk,
and, being met by Sir Phelim O’Neill with other chiefs and one thousand
five hundred men, proceeded to Ballyshannon.
In 1646 Quartermaster Harrison asked for the possession of the castle,
which the enemy had deserted, and offered to garrison and maintain it
with thirty warders.
Sir Charles Coot captured it in 1650, and Colonel Miles M’Sweeny tried
to retake it the same year.
The Harrisons sold it to the Harte family during the eighteenth century.
General Harte was present at the battle of Seringapatam, and the
capture of Tippoo Sahib, whose servant was also taken prisoner at the
same time, and afterwards came to Ireland with General Harte.
He lived at Doe Castle, and was devotedly attached to his new master.
He always wore his native dress, and is reported to have slept fully
armed on a mat at the General’s door.
He did not long survive his master, the General meeting with a sad
death by falling down the stairway leading to the tower.
Cannon captured at Seringapatam were mounted on the lawn of the castle.
The Hartes subsequently let Doe to a Mr. Maddison, but it remained in
the possession of the family until 1866, when it was purchased by Mr.
Ards.
The history of Doe Castle is not altogether as clear on many points as
could be wished, for the authorities seem to be greatly confused over
many important points.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
State Papers.
Harkin, “Scenery and Antiquities of North-West Donegal.”
Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.”
M’Devitt, “Donegal Highlands.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
[Illustration: DRIMNAGH CASTLE.]
_DRIMNAGH CASTLE_
About three miles from Dublin, between Crumlin and Clondalkin, is
situated the old fortress of Drimnagh or Druimneach, which signifies
the “ridged lands,” so called from the proximity of the sand ridges
called the Green Hills.
The castle is an oblong building with pointed battlements at the
corners. A passage with an arched entrance high enough for a loaded
cart to enter is visible from the road, above which rises three
storeys, with a modern window in each.
A turret stairway also projects on this side and rises above the
battlements. An ancient chimney flue is to be seen crowned by a modern
addition.
A small turret rises above the battlements on the north side as well,
at which side a strong, modern house has been added.
The castle is covered by a modern slated roof. Some outhouses bear
marks of antiquity, and a little distance from the main building is
a small, square tower, which, no doubt, formed an outpost for the
garrison. The fortress was surrounded by a moat at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, and its position can still be traced.
In 1215 the lands of Drimnagh were granted by King John to Hugh de
Bernivall, and he is supposed to have built the castle early in this
reign.
The lands were confirmed to his brother in 1221, and they remained in
his descendants’ possession for four hundred years.
In 1435 Wolfran Barnewall had licence to entail his estates, and in
1613 the family leased the castle to Sir Adam Loftus, a nephew of the
Archbishop, with the reservation that no timber was to be cut.
Some time later a Peter Barnewall succeeded to the property, and he
was unwilling to renew Sir Adam’s lease, whereupon that gentleman
endeavoured with some members of the Barnewall family to prevent his
inheriting the estate, and proceeded at the same time to cut down the
great trees which surrounded the fortress. After much litigation the
King at length intervened on behalf of Barnewall, and Sir Adam was
restrained from doing any more damage.
In 1649, after the battle of Rathmines, the Duke of Ormond seriously
contemplated fortifying Drimnagh and making it his headquarters, but he
was dissuaded by General Purcell.
Colonel Nicholas Walker, a Cromwellian officer, lived in the castle
after the Restoration. It was said that he was present on the scaffold
at the execution of Charles I. with his face covered by a vizor. The
Hearth Money Returns of 1664 state that Drimnagh was occupied by
“Lt.-Col. -----,” and had three “smooks” or chimneys.
In 1841 the fortress was the property of the Marquis of Lansdowne. It
was one of the castles of the Pale, and the scene of Mr. R. D. Joyce’s
romance entitled “The Rose of Drimnagh” is laid there.
Until lately it was inhabited by Mrs. Mylott, but it is now empty.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
D’Alton, “History of County Dublin.”
P., “Drimnagh Castle,” in _Irish Penny Journal_.
E. Ball, “Descriptive Sketch of Clondalkin, Tallaght,”
&c., in _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries_, Ireland.
Dix, “Lesser Castles in the County Dublin,” in _Irish Builder_.
Joyce, “Rambles Round Dublin,” in _Evening Telegraph_ Reprints.
[Illustration: DUBLIN CASTLE.]
_DUBLIN CASTLE_
The situation chosen by the Norsemen for the first fortress of
“Duibhlinn” (A.D. 840) was naturally strong, being on a
hill at the junction of the Liffey and the Poddle. After this date we
read of several raids upon the dun, or castle of Dublin, including the
treacherous entry into the city of Milun DeCogan and Meyler Fitz-Henri
during a truce, when all the defenders of the stronghold were put to
the sword. This was shortly after the landing of Strongbow. The present
area covered by Government buildings includes the ancient site.
When Henry II. came to Dublin a large wooden hall, covered with
wattles, was erected in Dame Street, that he might entertain the Irish
chiefs who came to pay homage. Upon his return to England he committed
“Dublin with its castle and donjon to Hugh de Laci, Fitz-Stephen, and
Morice Fitz-Gerald.” Hugh de Lacy became the first Viceroy. It was
while he was in England that Meyler Fitz-Henry, who had been appointed
Lord Justice in his absence, wrote to King John complaining that he had
no safe place to store the King’s treasure, and asking for leave to
erect a proper fortress. This he received in the form of a patent dated
1204, which says:--
“But you are first to finish one tower, unless afterwards a castle and
palace, and other works that may require greater leisure, may be more
conveniently raised, and that we should command you so to do.”
The grant consisted of 300 marks, which was owed to the King by
G. Fitz-Robert, and there are no records to show whether FitzHenry
ever collected the debt, or even began the castle in the three years
afterwards for which he held office. It seems to be a very general
opinion that the castle was built about 1220 by Henry Loundres,
Archbishop of Dublin, either at his own expense, or that he advanced
the money as a loan. A State paper, however, dated 1217, grants the
Archbishop two cantreds without Dublin for damage done to his churches
in fortifying the castle, and later there are many entries regarding
compensation to be paid in money to Henry Loundres in lieu of land
which had been encroached upon when extending the fortifications.
In 1242 an entry records that the windows of St. Edward’s Chapel
belonging to the castle were to be glazed, and divine service held.
This building seems to have been outside the fortress walls, on the
site of the present Chapel Royal which was erected in 1814. In 1243 a
hall was to be built 120 feet long and 80 feet wide. It was to have
glazed windows, with a round one at the gable end 30 feet in diameter.
The entrance to the castle was by a drawbridge on the north side, the
site now being occupied by the gate to the Upper Castle Yard. This
bridge was flanked by two towers, and defended by a portcullis, and
later by ordnance as well. From the gate towers, often used as State
prisons, a high curtain or wall extended east and west. In the westward
direction it joined what in later years was known as Cork Tower,
because it was rebuilt by the great Earl of Cork in 1629, it having
fallen in 1624, and been only partly restored. He spent £408 on it.
From this the wall was continued south to the Birmingham Tower, which
is said to have derived its name from its having been erected either
by John Birmingham, Earl of Louth, Lord Justice 1321, or Walter
Birmingham, who held office in 1348. It is more likely, however, that
this tower is identical with that known as the high tower, and that
it received the name Birmingham after William Birmingham and his son
Walter had been imprisoned there in 1331, otherwise the fortress would
have been incomplete prior to 1321, and the side with least natural
defence unprotected. From Birmingham Tower the curtain extended
eastward (intersected by two smaller towers) to Wardrobe Tower. From
this the wall was continued northward to the Store Tower near Dame’s
Gate, which was in its turn connected with the eastern gate tower.
There were two sallyports in the wall.