Inisloughlin
Fort Note:
Historically the name has had at least five different spellings
for the fort
The
next major record of life in the area comes from the late
16th and early 17th Century. Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone,
was engaged in a campaign against the English in Ireland known
as the Nine Years War.
O’Neill
had a Fort at Inisloughlin, just off the Hillsborough Road.
It was also close to a ford on the Lagan at what we now call
Spencer's Bridge. The Fort was 40 yards square with corner
bastions.
Map showing the Hillsborough Road at Spencer's
Bridge
A large reward was offered for O'Neill's capture, dead or
alive. Eventually Sir Arthur Chichester and his English soldiers
surrounded and captured Inisloughlin Fort in August 1602.
Richard Bartlett’s Map 1602
This
weakened O’Neill’s power and robbed him of vast
treasures he had hidden in the Fort. Soon he fled from Ireland
in what was known as the Flight of the Earls.
Lisburn and the territory around here, including the captured
Fort, were given to Sir Fluke Conway.
Capt.
Henry Spencer was Governor of the Fort in 1623. Spencer’s
Bridge close to the Fort was possibly built by him or named
after him. The fort was levelled in 1803 but one small part
still survived in 1837.
(The Castles of Ireland Compiled by Lee Johnson and Lewis
Topographical Dictionary, 1837)
Archaeologists
are still trying to unearth the exact location of the Fort
of Inislochlin.
Trummery
Tower
At
Trummery old church there once was a round tower similar to
others in Ireland, except that it was the same diameter all
the way to the top. It is dated from around the early 13th
Century.
Records indicate it was 60 ft high and 15 feet in diameter.
(A topographical dictionary of the British
islands by James A Sharpe Pub 1852) Tradition says
the English soldiers based at Soldierstown (or more likely
at Inishloughlin) used the ancient round tower as a target
for cannon fire. (1832 Ordinance Survey)
A great breach was made in the side next the church, but only
in the outer half of the tower wall.
The ruins were flattened in 1828, and nothing but scattered
fragments remain.
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