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The name Enniskillen (Inis-Ceithleann) means the Island of Kathleen, a mythical queen of ancient lore who was drowned there. Later times saw the name as a ford across the Erne and later still it was known as a fort or castle built by Hugh the Hospitable sometime in the early fifteenth century. This Hugh Maguire was tanaiste - heir apparent to his brother Thomas the Great who was king of Fermanagh from 1395 to 1430.
There is an old map dated 17 February, 1593 that gives several details of the castle:- "Measure of the Castell of Eniskyln, first the Castell in height, ’56 foott, the north ‘breith’ 38 foott, the thickness of the walls 8 foott; it has no ‘windowes’. The barbican wall 14 foott, distance from the Castell 45 foott, the height of the ‘deich’ at the bridge 36 ‘foott."
In 1508 the O’Neills and O’Donnells attacked the Castle and burnt it down and the Maguires rebuilt it and extended it. The Maguires themselves destroyed their stronghold around 1607 and it was re-built around 1610 by William Cole when he was appointed Constable of the Castle, then called the Royal Fort. The Cole family maintained a presence there until the 18th century. By 1762 the Castle was a ruin. In 1796 £7,000 was allocated to refurbish the castle as the Castle Barracks.
The Castle Barracks remained a military barrack until 1950 when it passed into Government care and is now controlled by the Fermanagh District Council as a museum of local archaeology and history.
A document in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum (folio 98) tells of life in the Castle in the time of Hugh the Hospitable:- ‘The time comes when he turns his face that way and while he is yet far off, blithe uproar of the chase greets him in the wood and field; wolf dog and greyhound severally work nearer, the horses of the fort in great numbers are at exercise, and their speed is tried. Abreast of the Mansion, the mast of a flotilla stands up as if it were a grove along the shore. The wayfarer arrives, enters, and (great as were his expectations) the scene strikes him - in the courtyard gentlemen of the Clan Colla dispense largesse, the hall is crowded with minstrels and with poets, in another apartment ladies and their women embroider rare tissues, and weave golden webs; yet elsewhere fighting men abound (indeed less or more they pervade the whole edifice), while as they sit in their own special quarters, over each man’s head his arms hang handy on the wall of drights (masons and carpenters), a whole regiment is there of artificers, also that finish, or bind as with silver beakers - of smiths that forge weapons; mantels and rugs are taking crimson stains, swords are tempered to a bright blue, spearheads riveted to shafts. Pledges (hostages) are enlarged, others again brought in, gallant men hurt are tended by the leech, brave men uninjured are being damaged’ (Punishment of malefactors must be intended here).
‘All manner of valuables are given away, and more pour in, a spell of this particular day (seldom to sin) is passed in listening to romances, in comparing genealogies; another (spell) being devoted to fluid reflection with accompaniment of music. Now all disperse till supper time, and so much there is to see and hear that the full day seems but an hour." As ever, they sit in due honour, Maguire in the chief place, Teigue, the travelling harper, at his right hand. Bedtime is there for the gentlemen, couches are strewed, coverlets of down provided, banquets continued sometime for weeks and now and again a pitched battle with a troublesome neighbour made up their history.’
Maguire
22 September 1999
References:
- Maguire, Thomas. 1945. Fermanagh, Its Nature Chiefs and Chieftans.
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