Harry Avery's Castle

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Harry Avery's Castle

Harry Avery's Castle is a ruined castle about half a mile southwest of the village of Newtownstewart in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland . It is a rare example of a stone castle built by a native Irish chief, though one is unsure of its origins and history. She is connected to Éinrí Aimhréidh Ó Néill († 1392, Anglicised Harry Avery or Henry O'Neill ) and named after him. It is located in the townland of Upper or New Deer Park in the Derry and Strabane district . The remains of the castle are a State Care Monument under the direction of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency .

description

The ruins of the castle stand on a low hill, the summit of which was artificially made steeper by an earth wall. This earth wall is surrounded by a curtain wall, most of which is no longer preserved today.

The part of the castle still standing today consists of a two-story, rectangular building, in front of which there are massive, D-shaped twin towers. Although this construction looks similar to a gatehouse , it is a simple residential tower to which the two D-shaped towers have been attached at the front. The residential tower had a vaulted ground floor that was accessed through a large gate between the two towers. Above this was a knight's hall that could be reached from the courtyard. The south tower contained a spiral staircase that connected the two floors and both towers had small rooms on the first floor with individual windows in their round walls. Traces of a wall staircase lead up to the second floor and there is a latrine drain upstairs, so one can assume that there was at least one parapet up there. Investigations on the construction showed that it was built in one go and is not a modification of an older gatehouse.

The construction of the castle has been compared to that of Elagh Castle at Inishowen , which also appears to be a locally built castle with D-shaped towers. They seem to have been inspired by Norman castles such as Carrickfergus Castle and Castle Roche , both of which have real gatehouses with D-shaped towers attached to the sides. The overall construction of Harry Avery's Castle is similar to that of other Gaelic fortresses, such as that in Seafin in County Down , which were later framed with a curtain wall with a gatehouse.

The annals of the four masters document the death of Harry Avery ( Éinrí Aimhréidh mac Néill Móir Uí Néill ). It took place on the feast day of St. Brendan in 1392. Scripture extols his justice, nobility and hospitality. But there are no records of this property there, suggesting that it was a place of little importance.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Avery's Castle . In: Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record . Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 16, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / apps.ehsni.gov.uk
  2. ^ State Care Historic Monuments to March 31, 2009 . Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Archived from the original on April 2, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 16, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.doeni.gov.uk
  3. ↑ a b E. Jope, H. Jope, E. Johnson: Harry Avery's Castle, Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone. Excavations in 1950 in Ulster Journal of Archeology . Issue 13 (1950), pp. 81-92.
  4. ↑ Annal M1392 . In: Annals of the Four Masters . CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts). Retrieved October 16, 2015.

Web links

Coordinates: 54 ° 42 ′ 46.8 "  N , 7 ° 23 ′ 34.8"  W.