Tully Castle
 On
Tully Point, overlooking Lough Erne, the impressive remains of a
fortified house, surviving almost to its full height of 2½
- storeys, and a bawn (defended enclosure) with four rectangular
flankers (projecting corner towers, providing flanking fire along
walls as well as forward). First documented in 1619, shortly after
being built for the Hume family, who lived there until 1641, when
it was captured and burned by the Maguire’s and never re-occupied.
The stronghouse, of two storeys with attics, has a typically Scottish
T-shaped plan with a square wing pro jecting from the centre of
the south side containing the entrance and a former scale-and-platt
timber stair. The hall and parlour lay on the first floor, while
the attics above contained the bedrooms, approached by a spiral
stair in a Scottish-style quarter-round turret projection. The ground
floor consists of a large barrel-vaulted chamber used as the kitchen
and store- it has a huge fireplace and cooking recesses, but there
are no windows, so light must have been provided by the fire and
hanging lanterns.
 A
ten-year programme of repair followed the acquisition of the castle
by the Department of Environment in 1974. Excavation revealed that
the bawn was divided up by cobbled paths suggesting the use of this
area as a garden. In 1988 formal beds were created within these
paths using plants known in Ireland during the seventeenth century.
Access: Visitor centre, garden and bawn are wheelchair accessible.
Footpath from car-park to Visitor centre and castle. Original paving
and cobbled paths within the garden and bawn. Castle interior is
not accessible to wheelchair users.
Steep path and steps from jetty to castle may be inaccessible for
wheelchair users and difficult for those with walking difficulties.
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