Overview
For close to five centuries this quiet wooded hill outside Cookstown was where a new chief became An Ó Néill – The O’Neill. It was less a coronation than a piece of political theatre. The head of the O’Hagans, hereditary keepers of the hill, handed over a white rod of office; the O’Cahan flung a single golden sandal over the new lord’s head for luck; and the chief took his seat on a stone chair built around the Leac na Rí, the flagstone of the kings. Richard Bartlett drew the whole ceremony in 1602 – which is fortunate, because that same year Lord Mountjoy’s army smashed the stone to pieces to break O’Neill power for good.
What survives is the setting rather than the stone: a large polygonal earthwork ringed by trees, a dished centre inside a bank with a wide flat terrace and no defensive ditch. It was never a fort in the fighting sense. The whole design is about being seen. The hilltop is visible for miles, and on a clear day you can pick out the spires of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh to the south and the Sperrins away to the west. Entry is free and the site is open at any hour.
A longer history than the O’Neills
Tullyhogue takes its name from the Middle Irish Tulach Óc, “hill of youth” or “mound of the young warriors”. People were here long before any chieftain: a 2014 dig by Queen’s University Belfast turned up worked flint from before 5000 BC, along with the foundations of medieval houses that may have belonged to the O’Hagans themselves. The hill was linked first to the Uí Tuirtri of Airgialla, and from the 11th century to the 17th to the O’Hagans, who guarded it and lie buried just below at Donaghrisk. Above them it served as the dynastic centre of the Cenél nEógain, later the O’Neills.
The last man inaugurated here was Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in 1595, at the height of the Nine Years’ War. Seven years later Mountjoy destroyed the inauguration stone, and by 1622 the hill was abandoned.
Getting to the top
A tarmac path runs from the car park to the summit, and you get a choice: a short, steep pull straight up, or a longer, gently winding route that works its way to the same place. Either takes ten or fifteen minutes, and both are doable with a pushchair or a wheelchair if you don’t mind some effort on the climb. Picnic tables sit near the foot of the hill, and that is the extent of the facilities – no visitor centre, no café, no toilets.
If you have only twenty minutes, take the gentle path, do a slow circuit of the bank, and read the ground while you look at the view. The story is what makes the place; the earthworks alone won’t tell it to you, so it pays to read up before you come.
Getting there and practical notes
The fort is signposted off the B162 between Cookstown and Stewartstown, about ten minutes’ drive south-south-east of Cookstown. The one real snag is the entrance: it sits on a tight, awkward corner on Tullywiggan Road, and the car park at the foot of the hill is small, so it fills quickly on a fine weekend. There is no admission charge and the site is open year-round, but note the official rule that no unaccompanied children under 16 are allowed on site. Public transport out here is thin, so you will want a car.
Nearby
- Killymoon Castle (1.4 miles) – a 19th-century castellated house in mature lakeside grounds.
- Drum Manor Forest Park (4.4 miles) – an 18th-century demesne now given over to woodland walks and seasonal colour.
- Hill of the O’Neill (3 miles) – another O’Neill site, with a viewing tower and interpretive displays in Dungannon.
- Cookstown and Dungannon – both within ten minutes, with pubs, cafés and places to stay for exploring County Tyrone.
Pick a clear day. In low cloud the summit is just a cold, viewless bank, and the reach across mid-Ulster to the Armagh spires and the Sperrins is the whole reason the hill mattered.