Enniskillen Castle & Fermanagh County Museum
In this article, Dr Damian Shiels introduces some of the key stories of Enniskillen Castle, a gateway to Ulster’s past.
Strategically located to control Lough Erne, one of Ireland’s largest lake systems, Enniskillen Castle sits astride one of the most important historic access points to Ulster. The stories imbued in the walls of the castle encompass one of Ireland’s most famed Gaelic Lordships, life in Ulster before and after the Plantation, and the chronicle of Irish military service. But this is more than just a castle, as the site also plays host to the wonderful Fermanagh County Museum and the collections of one of the most famed and ancient regiments of the British Army, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Enniskillen Castle owes its existence to one of the greatest Gaelic families of Irish history – the Mág Uidhir. Better known to us today as the Maguires, their story is entwined throughout the history of Fermanagh. The Maguires rose to prominence by the 13th century, when they gained ascendancy and control of the old kingdom of Fir Manach (from which Fermanagh gets its name). This ancient kingdom stretched between modern Enniskillen and Lisnaskea, a few miles away to the south-east. By 1297 the Maguires were being referred to as the ‘Kings of Lough Erne’ and from there the family’s power only grew. They had expanded their Kingship to encompass almost all the modern county of Fermanagh by 1400.
A prominent family like the Maguires likely had a number of crannogs in the lakeland landscapes of Fermanagh. Crannogs are artificial islands constructed in lakes that served as the homes of elite families. They can be found in both Ireland and Scotland, and although they typically date to the early medieval period, some continued to be used for centuries. In 2012, a crannóg was excavated at Drumclay on the outskirts of Enniskillen, and it quite likely that it was once one of the seats of the extended Maguire dynasty. The remarkable preservation of the site produced important insights into life for an elite family in early medieval Ireland. There is an exhibition on the dig in the castle, and you can hear from one of the excavation directors, Dr Nóra Birmingham, in this short video.
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The iconic Rock of Cashel • Tipperary
In order to reflect their status and prominence, in the early 15th century Hugh ‘The Hospitable’ Maguire decided to establish two new strongholds of stone rather than wood, in keeping with the fashion of other leading families in medieval Ireland. He located the first about seven miles to the north-west of Enniskillen, at Monea, close to a Maguire crannog. Perhaps as a mark of the changing times, and a symbol of the Maguire families past and future. Hugh selected Enniskillen as the site for the second fortress. Although there is no certain date for its construction, the Maguire tower house at Enniskillen likely took shape during the 1420s. Though unfortunately, Hugh did not get to enjoy his new castle for very long, he died in 1428 while on the way home from a pilgrimage in Spain.
The longevity of Enniskillen’s Castle use means that only a few traces of the Maguire presence are visible today, but one place where you can explore it is at the Castle Keep. Although it was largely rebuilt in later centuries, the batter along the Keep’s base is thought to be a partial survival from the days when the Maguires ruled over the Erne’s waterways. The ground floor of the Castle Keep is also dedicated to a permanent Fermangh County Museum exhibit on the ‘Medieval Maguires.’
Power and Beauty: The Development of Enniskillen Castle
The strategic position of Enniskillen Castle ensured that it quickly became the chief stronghold of the Maguires of Fermanagh. Hugh had carefully selected a spot on the isthmus between Upper and Lower Lough Erne. This ensured that it controlled the waterway, and with it, the main south-west access route into Ulster. The hive of activity that surrounded the castle, and its beautiful location, were highlighted in a 15th century poem written about Tomás Óg Maguire, who controlled the fortress during the 1430s. Here is how the poem described Tomás Óg’s house (which may have been a wooden structure just outside the towerhouse):
‘when one comes to its threshold one sees a herb-garden and ships, and there is only a fence between them. A strip of lake by the side of the house, a green clearing in front of it: the reflection of its purple outlines, a borrowed beauty, in the lake’
Enniskillen Castle: a sight to gladden the heart
Enniskillen Castle: a sight to gladden the heart
It was to Enniskillen Castle that the minor nobility of Fermanagh delivered their tribute of food and cattle, and the surrounding hinterland was retained under direct Maguire control, much like a manorial centre. In the 16th century it was said that over 900 acres of land around the castle were maintained by the lord to be “manured with his own churls (peasants).” From almost the moment of its construction, Enniskillen Castle’s strategic and administrative importance to the Maguires continued apace for almost two centuries. This marked Enniskillen out as a place that attracted not only significant power, but also significant conflict.
The Maguires in the Nine Years War – Death and Destruction in Ulster
A room in the lower floor of the keep • Enniskillen Castle
Enniskillen Castle’s location astride the main route into the heartland of Gaelic Ulster took on enormous significance during the late 16th century. During the 1590s, rising tensions between the province’s powerful Gaelic Lords and the English Crown finally exploded into one of Irish history’s most brutal bloodlettings. During the Nine Year’s War (1594-1603) the Irish came closer than ever before to defeating English power on the island, but its ultimate result was victory for Elizabeth I’s forces, and the final, near complete destruction of Gaelic power. Ulster was where the war began, where it ended and where the Irish strategy was controlled. All three of the primary Gaelic leaders during the war were Ulster allies and neighbours, Hugh “The Great” O’Neill, “Red” Hugh O’Donnell, and Hugh Maguire, Lord of Fermanagh.
While the Maguires were all powerful in Fermanagh, from the 15th century onwards they in turn had paid allegiance to one of the two most powerful Gaelic Lordships in Ulster –the Uí Domhnaill (O’Donnells) of what is now Donegal and the Uí Neill (O’Neills) of Tyrone. By the 1590s, those relationships meant their fortunes were inextricably linked. The wife of Lord Hugh Maguire was O’Neill’s daughter, and in 1592 Hugh sheltered O’Donnell following his famous escape from English captivity in Dublin Castle. In collaboration with O’Neill and O’Donnell, it was the forces of Hugh Maguire who effectively began the Nine Years War. Inevitably, Maguire’s Enniskillen Castle stronghold became a major target of English forces.
On 24 January 1594 Captain John Dowdall led an English force up the waterways of the Erne in an effort to take Maguire’s Castle for the Crown. Once they arrived, Dowdall’s men occupied positions across the River Erne from the fortress’s walls–they even had supporting fire coming from boats positioned on the river and Lough Erne. The siege that followed lasted for nine days, but in the end of Dowdall’s men breached the defences, and launched an amphibious assault that took the Castle. Every man, woman and and child inside was put to the sword. The dramatic events of this 1594 siege were immortalised in a famous pictorial map which depicts the action, now preserved in the British Library (you can see the map in this article).
Hugh Maguire was not in Enniskillen Castle when it fell, and its capture soon proved a poisoned chalice for the English. The new garrison was quickly cut off by Irish forces, and efforts to resupply it were subjected to repeated attacks. By May 1595 it was back in Maguire hands, and the English soldiers inside received the same lack of mercy that had been afforded its Irish defenders. Though Enniskillen Castle would change hands again. Ultimately, the fortunes of war turned against the Irish, and against Hugh Maguire. He was killed in combat with Warham St Leger outside Cork on the 4th March 1600. St Leger shot Maguire, but the Fermanagh man also slew his opponent by driving his lance into his skull. Defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and the ruthless reduction of Ulster that followed finally broke the Maguires. In 1607 Cú Chonnacht Óg, the last Maguire Lord at Enniskillen, left Ireland for the Continent as part of the infamous ‘Flight of the Earls’, an event often viewed as marking the final act of Gaelic Ireland. Cú Chonnacht died in Spain in 1608 while trying to gain Spanish support for a return to Ireland.
Enniskillen Castle in the Ulster Plantation
The Nine Years War had left Enniskillen “a broken castle” in the words of one contemporary. But new days were ahead for the castle. It became a key centre in the Plantation of Ulster as waves of Scottish and English settlers arrived in Ulster. Following the Maguires departure, Enniskillen Castle was placed in the hands of an English Constable. Not long afterwards, Londoner William Cole (later Sir William Cole), who went on to become one of the plantation’s biggest landowners, arrived to shape the future of both Enniskillen Castle and the new plantation town emerging beside it.
In 1611 he used a £200 grant from the Crown to refortify the site, constructing an 8m high “fair and strong wall” and flankers built around the old medieval Maguire towerhouse. The following year plans for the development of the town took shape, and the Castle, where William lived, was soon improved again. Enniskillen was once more becoming a prominent place. By 1630 around 180 settlers were making the new county town beyond the castle walls their home. Its continued prominence in Fermanagh’s history was secured.
There remain many elements within the Enniskillen Castle complex where you can come face to face with the site’s early plantation legacy. Chief amongst them is the building known today as the Watergate, perhaps the Castle’s most famous feature, which William Cole completed in 1614. Its distinctive corbelled conical-roof turrets were inspired by the Scottish architecture of the new settlers’ homeland. Despite its name, this structure never actually provided access to the waterways, although it did have a 4m deep well, and was once the site of the latrine for the military barracks. The name Watergate has only been applied to it in more recent centuries.
Another building that bears the mark of William Cole’s time is the Castle Keep. In 1611 he had started work on a “fair house on the foundation of the old castle” and it is largely his building that survives at the centre of the complex today, although the large windows you can see today were a late 18th century addition.
The Watergate • Enniskillen Castle
Birthplace of a Famed Regiment – The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
ExE Part of the exhibition on the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
ExE Part of the exhibition on the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Despite the turmoil of the 17th century Enniskillen continued to grow. Its inhabitants soon established a reputation as a force to be reckoned with. This reached its zenith at the end of the 17th century, when Ireland became the main theatre of war in the struggle for the Crown between King James II and his Jacobites and King William III and his Williamites. The Enniskillen townspeople largely took the side of King William, and in 1688 formed a troop of dragoons and infantry, the ‘Inniskillingers’ to take the war to their enemy. Their decisive role in the 1689 Battle of Newtownbutler, fought to the south-east of Enniskillen, cemented their reputation. They were officially incorporated into the Williamite Army and then placed on the British Army establishment, becoming the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot and (from 1881) the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The Inniskillings took as their symbol Enniskillen’s iconic Watergate, carrying the symbol of the castle into combat on their cap badges and buttons. The regiment’s recruitment area eventually grew to encompass Fermanagh, Derry, Donegal and Tyrone.
Over the centuries the Inniskillings have been involved in every major conflict in which Britain has participated. Along the way they developed one of the most storied records in the British Army. Enniskillen Castle was where the Inniskillings first formed, and it is now the home of the Inniskillings Museum. Exhibitions in the Curved Range and the upper floors of the Castle Keep trace the history of the Royal Inniskilling Fusliers and the Royal Iniskilling Dragoon Guards from the 17th century through conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars and the two World Wars. As well as original artefacts, the galleries are replete with interactive displays and life-size dioramas, charting the path of the Inniskillings from their origins into the modern era.
Enniskillen Castle’s links to the Inniskillings is just one element of its long military story. In 1796 a £7000 refurbishment transformed the site into a modern military barracks, a function it retained until 1927. Many of the surviving buildings you see at the site today relate to this period in the Castle’s history. The Barrack Coach House was built in 1881, and the impressive Curved Range was in place by 1822, built atop the old curtain wall of the Castle.
Both buildings now house exhibition spaces. It was also during the 19th century that the area now known as the Castle Garden was enclosed. It had various functions during the years, including use as the Commander’s Garden and later a rifle range. Today the garden provides lovely views of the Watergate and the River Erne, and makes an the ideal spot for a summer picnic!
Upper left: the Keep and Watergate • Lower left: the Drumclay exhibition • Right: the courtyard
Top: the Keep and Watergate • Middle: the courtyard • Bottom: the Drumclay exhibition
Enniskillen Castle Visitor Information
Enniskillen Castle has long served an important role as a key gateway into Ulster. Today it is the ideal place to discover the story of Fermanagh’s past.
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