The cache is a small ammo box hidden on the outskirts of the site.
Following the Flight of the Earls in 1607, the Crown seized
Irish land in Ulster and granted it out in large parcels to English
and Scottish ‘planters’ on condition that they build settlements
and provide strongholds loyal to the king. Sir John Hume of
Polwarth in Berwickshire was granted 2000 acres at Tully, known as
‘Carrynroe’, in 1610, and had built a castle on Tully Point by
1613.
The life of the castle was brief. Sir John Hume died in 1639 and
was succeeded by his son, Sir George. In 1641, Rory Maguire set out
to recapture his family’s lands. He arrived with a large following
on Christmas Eve, and found the castle full of women and children,
but most of the men were away.
Lady Mary Hume surrendered, believing that she had assured a
safe conduct for all in her care, but on Christmas Day the Maguires
killed 60 women and children and 15 men, sparing only the Humes.
The castle was burnt and the Humes never went back.
Extract from the Irish massaces Of 1641 -
depositions.
The Examination of CAPTAIN PATRICK HUME, taken upon oath at
Inniskillen, in the County of Fermanagh, 1st day of April, 1654,
before (illegible) hamilton, Lieut. (torn), John Carmick, Robert
Browning, Commissioners, thereunto authorised by virtue of a
Commission of the 9th of March, 1653, signed by the Hon. Gerard
Lowther, Lord President of the High Court of Justice, directed at
Dublin to the said Commissioners, or to any two or more of
them.
This examt. upon his oath saith, that upon the 24th day of
December, 1641, Rory Maguire, brother of the Lord Maguire, being at
the head of a number of rebels, to the number of 800 or thereabouts
in arms, did in a hostile manner come to the Castle of Tully, where
having summoned the Lady Hume, Alexander Hume, John Grier, and this
examt. (who there did labour to preserve the lives of those and
many other British Protestants by defending the same castle), to
yield it up to their hands. The said so summoned, through dread and
despair of their lives, came to a parley with the said Rory, on the
said day of the year, when the castle was then delivered up to him,
when it was agreed upon that the said Lady Hume, Alexander Hume,
John Grier, this examt. and the rest of all the men, women, and
children, who were there in that castle, should have quarter for
their lives, and all their goods, with free liberty and safe
conduct to go either to Monea or Enniskillen, at their choice,
provided the said Castle of Tully and the arms in the same should
be yielded up to the said Rory Maguire, all which was granted and
promised, yea upon oaths, and confirmed by writing by the said
Rory. And thereupon the said Rory did enter into the said castle,
and received up all the arms that were there. And afterwards that
same day, the rebels having stripped the Protestants of all their
clothes (except the said Lady Hume), they imprisoned them in the
vaults or cellars of the said castle, where they kept them with a
strong guard all that night, and the next morning, being the Lord’s
Day, and the 25th day of December, 1641, they took the Lady Hume,
Alexander Hume, John Grier, and this examt., with their wives and
children, away from the rest of the prisoners, forth of the said
castle, and placed them in the barn of one John Goodfellow at
Tully, aforesaid, within a stone’s cast from the castle, putting
them in hopes that they meant to convey them to the Castle of
Monea, upon horses which they provided for them, but as for the
rest that were then left behind in the Castle of Tully, the rebels
told those in the barn that they should go on foot after them to
Monea aforesaid. But immediately after, upon the 25th of December,
1641, at Tully Castle and within and about the bawn and vaults of
the same, in the county of Fermanagh, the rebels did most cruelly
and barbarously murder the said Protestants, to the number of men
and 60 women and children or thereabouts, the names of the persons
so murdered followeth, viz.: Francis Trotter, Thomas Trotter,
Alexander Sheringfield, Alexander Bell, George Chearnside, Robert
Black, James Barry, Thomas Anderson, Robert Lawdon, John Brooke,
David Anderson, James Anderson, and many others - men, women, and
children - whose names this deponent doth not now remember. The
actors in this massacre, this examt. saith, for the most part are
since that time dead, or slain as he heard, and as for such of them
as survive, this examt. remembers not their names. And this examt.
saith, after the said rebels did pillage and plunder the said
castle, they did burn it on the day and year aforesaid. And further
this examt. deposeth not anything material. PTK. HUME.
Taken before us, 1st of April 1654, WM. HAMILTON. JOHN
CARMICKE. ROBT. BROWNING. THO. BAMPTON.