Castle, Tully, Co. Longford

The castle's turbulent history stretches back to at least 1396, when historical records describe it being burned during an attack by the Earl of March, who arrived with his force of Galls and Gaels to assault the Clann Sheáin Í Fhearghail. By 1570, the castle had become the residence of Faghne O'Farrell, also known as O'Farrell Bane, and the property continued to pass through various hands over the centuries. In 1621, Fergus Farrall was granted 'The castle and lands of Tully', which together formed the manor of Tully.

The castle appears on an early 17th-century map of Granard barony, preserved in the British Library's Cotton manuscript collection. When the Ordnance Survey mapped the area in the 1830s, they recorded it as 'Castle ruins' on their Fair Plan, depicting it as a walled rectangular structure with a gap in the northeast wall. They also noted what may have been an associated bawn, a fortified enclosure typical of Irish castles, immediately to the southwest. However, even by 1836, the OS Name Book recorded that 'only some old walls remain' of the once-formidable structure.

Today, visitors to the site will find little evidence of the castle that once dominated this strategic position, though the location still offers those same commanding views across the surrounding countryside that made it such an attractive defensive position. About 30 metres to the south lie the earthworks of what may be a motte and bailey, an earlier Norman fortification that could predate the stone castle. Together, these sites tell the story of centuries of conflict and control in County Longford, from medieval clan warfare through to the plantation period of early modern Ireland.