Harry Avery's Castle, Newtownstewart, 2 Feb 2020, DSC_2011-2
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.
Harry Avery's Castle, Newtownstewart, 2 Feb 2020, DSC_2011-2
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.