Overview
For close to five centuries this quiet wooded hill outside Cookstown was where a new chief became An Ó Néill – The O’Neill. It was less a coronation than a piece of political theatre. The head of the O’Hagans, hereditary keepers of the hill, handed over a white rod of office; the O’Cahan flung a single golden sandal over the new lord’s head for luck; and the chief took his seat on a stone chair built around the Leac na Rí, the flagstone of the kings. Richard Bartlett drew the whole ceremony in 1602 – which is fortunate, because that same year Lord Mountjoy’s army smashed the stone to pieces to break O’Neill power for good.
What survives is the setting rather than the stone: a large polygonal earthwork ringed by trees, a dished centre inside a bank with a wide flat terrace and no defensive ditch. It was never a fort in the fighting sense. The whole design is about being seen. The hilltop is visible for miles, and on a clear day you can pick out the spires of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh to the south and the Sperrins away to the west.
Is Tullyhogue Fort open?
The Department for Communities lists Tullaghoge Fort as free to visit, with occasional restrictions. Check current access on that page before you go, use the signed approach and stay on the paths, which climb to the earthworks. Dogs should be kept on a lead.
A longer history than the O’Neills
Tullyhogue takes its name from the Middle Irish Tulach Óc, “hill of youth” or “mound of the young warriors”. People were here long before any chieftain: a 2014 dig by Queen’s University Belfast turned up worked flint from before 5000 BC, along with the foundations of medieval houses that may have belonged to the O’Hagans themselves. The hill was linked first to the Uí Tuirtri of Airgialla, and from the 11th century to the 17th to the O’Hagans, who guarded it and lie buried just below at Donaghrisk. Above them it served as the dynastic centre of the Cenél nEógain, later the O’Neills.
The last man inaugurated here was Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in 1595, at the height of the Nine Years’ War. Seven years later Mountjoy destroyed the inauguration stone, and by 1622 the hill was abandoned.
Getting to the top
Paths climb from the foot of the hill to the earthworks. Stay on them, and take your time on the way up, since the slope is a steady pull. For a short visit, do a slow circuit of the bank and read the ground while you look at the view. The story is what makes the place; the earthworks alone won’t tell it to you, so it pays to read up before you come.
Getting there and practical notes
The fort is signposted off the B162 between Cookstown and Stewartstown, about ten minutes’ drive south-south-east of Cookstown. The entrance sits on a tight, awkward corner on Tullywiggan Road, so take care approaching it. Public transport out here is thin, so you will want a car. For current access notices, rules for visitors and facilities, check the Department for Communities page before you set out.
Nearby
- Killymoon Castle (1.4 miles) – a 19th-century castellated house in mature lakeside grounds.
- Drum Manor Forest Park (4.4 miles) – an 18th-century demesne now given over to woodland walks and seasonal colour.
- Hill of the O’Neill (3 miles) – another O’Neill site, with a viewing tower and interpretive displays in Dungannon.
- Cookstown and Dungannon – both within ten minutes, with pubs, cafés and places to stay for exploring County Tyrone.
Pick a clear day. In low cloud the summit is just a cold, viewless bank, and the reach across mid-Ulster to the Armagh spires and the Sperrins is the whole reason the hill mattered.