Cliff-edge fort

The National Monuments Service's description

At a cliff-edge on the summit of Tullaghan Hill, a prominent rocky peak that rises from a bog-covered plateau NE of Coolaney, in the Ox Mountains. The fort has excellent views and overlooks a mountain pass to NW. A roughly D-shaped area (21m E-W; 19m N-S) defined E-W by two concentric stone walls and on the straight N side by a flat lip of bedrock marking the top of the cliff-face. The inner wall (Wth 2.5m) is collapsed and partially obscured by sod. External wall-facing is evident in places consisting of two to four courses (H 1.2m) of horizontally laid slabs. Outside the wall SW-W is a sod-covered spread (Wth 3m) of stones. A section of the wall at E has been rebuilt and there is a large break (Wth 7m) SSE-SW. There is a possible entrance (Wth 0.95m) at SE, flanked by two stone blocks. On top of the wall at SW is a possible penitential cairn (SL026-001004-). The remains of the outer wall are located 13-18m downslope of the inner wall and the intervening ground slopes down steeply apart from SE-W where it levels out to a natural terrace. The basal courses of the outer wall (Wth 1.55m; H 0.5m) are evident SW-W and are moss-covered. Elsewhere it is marked only by a slightly raised line of moss and heather. A field wall (SL026-001002-), barely discernible as a line of stones protruding through the sod, extends on a NE-SW axis between the inner and outer fort walls, continuing outside the fort limit as a cropmark following a natural scarp or contour to NW, then down the hillside to W.
The interior is level but the surface is uneven, stony and obscured by overgrowth including a dense thicket of blackthorn bushes in the SE quadrant. Slightly W of centre are two parallel linear stone walls (L c. 9m; Wth c. 1m; long axis N-S), 1.4m apart. A cross-wall (long axis NW-SE) may connect them at the S. Close to the fort wall at W is a sunken linear trench (L c. 5m; Wth 0.5m; D 0.4m).
At the base of the cliff, 12-15m N of the cliff-face is a wall (Wth 1m; H 1.7m on N side), roughly constructed of boulders, which extends for 25m E-W linking two rock outcrops that project from the E and W ends of the cliff. The space between the cliff and the wall appears to be a natural terrace and, beneath dense overgrowth, is covered in stones and boulders. There is a holy well (SL026-001003-), the Hawke's Well, between the inner and outer fort walls on the E side. A possible souterrain (SL026-001007-) lies in the W half.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008