Mountjoy Castle

Standing on a low hill overlooking Lough Neagh, the castle is a small, early 17th-century campaign fort or blockhouse. The building is of stone below, with dressed quoins, and brick above, in parts badly weathered, especially inside. The central rectangular block has four spear-shaped angle towers with gun-loops for raking fire along the walls, but only three of the towers are accessible to visitors. The entrance was in the south-east wall, where a draw-bar hole can be seen.

This is probably the fortification reported in 1611 by Sir George Carew as having been built ‘beside the old fort’ and finished after 1605. It is not to be identified with the large fort built by Francis Roe during Mountjoy’s northward advance against O’Neill in 1602 (the ‘old fort’) and illustrated in a pictorial map by Richard Bartlett. This was probably on land closer to the lough shore. The forts in this area continued in use to the late 17th century.

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