Harry Avery's Castle, Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone N. Ireland, 2 Feb 2020, v1 Short
Harry Avery’s Castle
The ruins of Harry Avery's Castle sit calmly perched at the edge of a field on top of unspoiled rolling hills south west of the town of Newtownstewart, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The site overlooks the confluence of the River’s Strule and Owenkillew which nestle at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains.
The site is located in the townland of Upper or New Deer Park, in the Derry and Strabane District Council area, at grid reference H3915 8527.
It is one of the few native stone-built castles in Ireland, having been built by a local Gaelic chieftain of the O’Neill clan and is thought to have been built around 1320 by Henry Aimbreidh O’Neill anglicised as Harry Avery who the castle is named after.
O’Neill died on the feast of St Brendan on 16th May 1392 and he was noted in the Annals of the Four Masters for his justice, nobility and hospitality and named him as ‘Enrí Aimhreidh mac Neill Móir Uí Néill’.
Harry Avery (Henry Aimbreidh O’Neill) is said to have had a sister with the head of a pig so she was having great difficulty finding a husband. Any man who married her stood to receive a large dowry however she remained unwed after nineteen suitors successively refused to marry her so Harry had them taken to the gallows on this very site? No documented records exist to confirm this story, however it conflicts with the Annals of the Four Masters which praised him as being a justice, noble and hospitable person.
Interestingly, not far to the South East of the castle is a town land called ‘Gallows Hill’, could this be the location if these men were actually hanged?
The now 700 years old castle consisted of a two-storey rectangular construction fronted by the remaining massive D-shaped twin towers. An arched floor entered with a large door was located between the two towers (resembling a gatehouse) projecting from the south face of an artificially scarped knoll, whose sides have been revetted by a wall to form a polygonal enclosure (this is evident from aerial views). The two-storey tower building would have functioned as a tower house and there would have been several wooden structures inside the enclosure.
Excavations in 1950 and 1962 have shown this to have been between 5 and 8 ft thick, though little now remains beyond the gatehouse towers and part of a square interval tower on the East side of the bailey. Examination of the structure suggests that it was built in a single phase, rather than a modification of an older gatehouse.
The gatehouse, the only means of entry to the enclosure, was up a narrow mural stair in the South West tower leading to the main hall at first floor level, a rectangle immediately behind the two towers, on a level with the bailey behind it.
The entrance has a draw-bar slot (a horizontal bar or wooden pole slotted into a bar-hole designed to secure the door from within), while the low vaulted chambers in each tower have traces of wattle shuttering on their ceilings and latrine shafts (a toilet, especially a communal one in a camp or barracks) in one of the towers.
Segmental vaulted mural chambers at first floor level, that on the East with a garderobe shaft (an indoor toilet with a waste chute that extending down and through the wall to an external exit).
The design of the castle is compared to the Elagh Castle, Inishowen, which also seems to have been a native built castle with D towers. The inspiration is thought to have come from Norman castles such as Carrickfergus Castle and Castle Roche (Dundalk), both flanked by D towers. The overall design of Harry Avery Castle is also similar to other Gaelic forts such as Seafin, County Down, which was later enclosed with a tower house by a curtain wall. There appears to be no historical record of this site thus, suggesting it was a location of limited importance.
The castle was destroyed after capture by English forces in 1609 and subsequently its stonework was quarried for building material hence its ruinous state.
However sparse the remains may be, they represent a charming mystic and command magnificent 360° panoramic views across the Mourne Valley, including Newtownstewart, the River Strule, the twin hills of Bessy Bell and Mary Gray and the Sperrin mountains.
Access & Prohibitions
Harry Avery's Castle is freely accessible provided that you leave the grazing livestock alone by keeping dogs under control Access to the site is across working farmland. A number of other prohibitions are in place e.g. ceremonies and events, commercial and wedding photography, commercial or private filming including the use of drones and any air-borne devices and organised groups and tours unless written permission is sought from the Department of Communities.
Car parking is not available at the site and the adjacent road is very narrow.
Open access.
State Care Monument under the guardianship of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
Grid reference H 3915 8527.
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray
Two hills near Newtownstewart, County Tyrone (Northern Ireland) were named after Bessy Bell (420m) and Mary Gray (230m) by Scottish immigrants who went to Ireland to make their passage to America. Sliabh Troim ('mountain of elder') is the original Irish name of Bessy Bell, also recorded as Sliab Toad. There also exist twin hills in Staunton, Virginia, USA (in the Shenandoah Valley) which were named after the girls by Scottish immigrants. Two adjacent volcanic cones in the Auckland volcanic field, New Zealand, (Otara Hill and Green Hill) were referred to by 19th-century European settlers as Bessy Bell and Mary Gray.
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray are "twa bonnie lassies", the subject of one of the Child Ballads (305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants by Francis James Child).
According to the ballad, Bessie and Mary were daughters of two Perthshire (Perth, Scotland) gentlemen, who in 1666 built themselves a bower (a shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together) to avoid catching a devastating plague. According to a letter written on 21 June 1781 by Major Barry, then proprietor of Lednock and later appears in the "Transactions of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland", Mary Gray's father was the Laird of Lednock and Bessie Bell of Kinvaid. An intimate friendship subsisted between them and, when the plague broke out while Bessie was visiting Mary Gray, they built a bower out in the country three-quarters of a mile west of Lednock House in a very retired and romantic place called Burn-Braes, on the side of Brauchie-Burn.
The plague crossed the border from England in April 1645, reaching Edinburgh in June and Perth in August. Nearly 3,000 people died in Perth and corpses were left rotting in the street.
They were supplied with food by a young man who was in love with both of them. Unfortunately, he caught the plague and gave it to them, and they all ended up dead. Believe it or not, this has been called a children's song! On the other hand, some scholars consider it the oldest lesbian song in the English language. Here is an English version of the song, for anyone who may have struggling with the Scottish version.
Follow the link to the YouTube video of Raymond Crooke singing the ballad.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3GHEWwhJNE
The full version of this video is available on YouTube
Harry Avery's Castle, Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone N. Ireland, 2 Feb 2020, v1 Short
Harry Avery’s Castle
The ruins of Harry Avery's Castle sit calmly perched at the edge of a field on top of unspoiled rolling hills south west of the town of Newtownstewart, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The site overlooks the confluence of the River’s Strule and Owenkillew which nestle at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains.
The site is located in the townland of Upper or New Deer Park, in the Derry and Strabane District Council area, at grid reference H3915 8527.
It is one of the few native stone-built castles in Ireland, having been built by a local Gaelic chieftain of the O’Neill clan and is thought to have been built around 1320 by Henry Aimbreidh O’Neill anglicised as Harry Avery who the castle is named after.
O’Neill died on the feast of St Brendan on 16th May 1392 and he was noted in the Annals of the Four Masters for his justice, nobility and hospitality and named him as ‘Enrí Aimhreidh mac Neill Móir Uí Néill’.
Harry Avery (Henry Aimbreidh O’Neill) is said to have had a sister with the head of a pig so she was having great difficulty finding a husband. Any man who married her stood to receive a large dowry however she remained unwed after nineteen suitors successively refused to marry her so Harry had them taken to the gallows on this very site? No documented records exist to confirm this story, however it conflicts with the Annals of the Four Masters which praised him as being a justice, noble and hospitable person.
Interestingly, not far to the South East of the castle is a town land called ‘Gallows Hill’, could this be the location if these men were actually hanged?
The now 700 years old castle consisted of a two-storey rectangular construction fronted by the remaining massive D-shaped twin towers. An arched floor entered with a large door was located between the two towers (resembling a gatehouse) projecting from the south face of an artificially scarped knoll, whose sides have been revetted by a wall to form a polygonal enclosure (this is evident from aerial views). The two-storey tower building would have functioned as a tower house and there would have been several wooden structures inside the enclosure.
Excavations in 1950 and 1962 have shown this to have been between 5 and 8 ft thick, though little now remains beyond the gatehouse towers and part of a square interval tower on the East side of the bailey. Examination of the structure suggests that it was built in a single phase, rather than a modification of an older gatehouse.
The gatehouse, the only means of entry to the enclosure, was up a narrow mural stair in the South West tower leading to the main hall at first floor level, a rectangle immediately behind the two towers, on a level with the bailey behind it.
The entrance has a draw-bar slot (a horizontal bar or wooden pole slotted into a bar-hole designed to secure the door from within), while the low vaulted chambers in each tower have traces of wattle shuttering on their ceilings and latrine shafts (a toilet, especially a communal one in a camp or barracks) in one of the towers.
Segmental vaulted mural chambers at first floor level, that on the East with a garderobe shaft (an indoor toilet with a waste chute that extending down and through the wall to an external exit).
The design of the castle is compared to the Elagh Castle, Inishowen, which also seems to have been a native built castle with D towers. The inspiration is thought to have come from Norman castles such as Carrickfergus Castle and Castle Roche (Dundalk), both flanked by D towers. The overall design of Harry Avery Castle is also similar to other Gaelic forts such as Seafin, County Down, which was later enclosed with a tower house by a curtain wall. There appears to be no historical record of this site thus, suggesting it was a location of limited importance.
The castle was destroyed after capture by English forces in 1609 and subsequently its stonework was quarried for building material hence its ruinous state.
However sparse the remains may be, they represent a charming mystic and command magnificent 360° panoramic views across the Mourne Valley, including Newtownstewart, the River Strule, the twin hills of Bessy Bell and Mary Gray and the Sperrin mountains.
Access & Prohibitions
Harry Avery's Castle is freely accessible provided that you leave the grazing livestock alone by keeping dogs under control Access to the site is across working farmland. A number of other prohibitions are in place e.g. ceremonies and events, commercial and wedding photography, commercial or private filming including the use of drones and any air-borne devices and organised groups and tours unless written permission is sought from the Department of Communities.
Car parking is not available at the site and the adjacent road is very narrow.
Open access.
State Care Monument under the guardianship of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
Grid reference H 3915 8527.
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray
Two hills near Newtownstewart, County Tyrone (Northern Ireland) were named after Bessy Bell (420m) and Mary Gray (230m) by Scottish immigrants who went to Ireland to make their passage to America. Sliabh Troim ('mountain of elder') is the original Irish name of Bessy Bell, also recorded as Sliab Toad. There also exist twin hills in Staunton, Virginia, USA (in the Shenandoah Valley) which were named after the girls by Scottish immigrants. Two adjacent volcanic cones in the Auckland volcanic field, New Zealand, (Otara Hill and Green Hill) were referred to by 19th-century European settlers as Bessy Bell and Mary Gray.
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray are "twa bonnie lassies", the subject of one of the Child Ballads (305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants by Francis James Child).
According to the ballad, Bessie and Mary were daughters of two Perthshire (Perth, Scotland) gentlemen, who in 1666 built themselves a bower (a shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together) to avoid catching a devastating plague. According to a letter written on 21 June 1781 by Major Barry, then proprietor of Lednock and later appears in the "Transactions of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland", Mary Gray's father was the Laird of Lednock and Bessie Bell of Kinvaid. An intimate friendship subsisted between them and, when the plague broke out while Bessie was visiting Mary Gray, they built a bower out in the country three-quarters of a mile west of Lednock House in a very retired and romantic place called Burn-Braes, on the side of Brauchie-Burn.
The plague crossed the border from England in April 1645, reaching Edinburgh in June and Perth in August. Nearly 3,000 people died in Perth and corpses were left rotting in the street.
They were supplied with food by a young man who was in love with both of them. Unfortunately, he caught the plague and gave it to them, and they all ended up dead. Believe it or not, this has been called a children's song! On the other hand, some scholars consider it the oldest lesbian song in the English language. Here is an English version of the song, for anyone who may have struggling with the Scottish version.
Follow the link to the YouTube video of Raymond Crooke singing the ballad.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3GHEWwhJNE
The full version of this video is available on YouTube