ROUGHAN LOUGH CRANNOGH
Stewart’s Castle was built close to the site of the present day Castle Farm,
with its view of the small lough and crannog. It was to this crannog that Hugh
O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, came in September 1607 on his journey to Donegal in
what was to be known as the ‘Flight of the Earls’.
Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard (died August 1653), also called Phelim
MacShane O'Neill or Féilim Ó Néill (Irish), was an Irish nobleman who led the Irish
Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster which began on 22 October 1641. He was a
member of the Irish Catholic Confederation during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, where he fought under his kinsman Owen Roe O'Neill. He was captured and executed
during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1652.
Anyone implicated in the Rebellion of 1641 was held responsible for the
massacres of Protestant civilians and executed. O'Neill was specifically named
as a ringleader in the Cromwellian Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and could
therefore have expected little mercy when he was captured on 4 February 1653 at
Roughan Castle where he had taken refuge, near Newmills, County Tyrone. He was taken to Dublin, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.
