Tullaghoge Fort

Tinks‘ next adventure was another chance discovery. Because no appointment was available at my local MOT centre for weeks to come, I grudgingly presented my car at the Cookstown DVTA Centre. On the long way back I came across a signpost to Tullaghoge Fort. Hoping to prevent the drive from being a complete loss, I stopped for a nosy. I instantly realised that this site was right up my alley, and so I returned shortly thereafter with Tinks to have a proper look.

The site is not so much of strategic but cultural significance, having been the inauguration site for chieftains since ancient times. It is not known when the site was created, and historical records only prove that the chieftains of the O’Neill clan were inaugurated here, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the site has been in use much longer than that.

The last known inauguration to take place here was that of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in 1595. Claims that Felim O’Neill of Kinard was crowned here in 1641 are disputed. The site fell into disrepair after the Flight of the Earls in 1607, and very few features of the once substantial and culturally important site remain. Particularly, the missing inauguration stone, Leac na Rí, has been shrouded in mystery ever since.

The superficial similarity to a defensive rath has been dismissed by archaeologists as coincidence, and current academic thinking is that the arrangement of the ditches and earthen walls was unsuitable to be used as fortifications, and were of a ceremonial purpose only.

I used Quik again as the editing tool, followed by polishing in iMovie on my MacBook Pro. However, on this occasion I am much less happy with the outcome. The individual clips are much too short in my mind, and make for a unnerving viewing experience. Essentially, one never has a chance to properly take in any scene, before Quik already cuts to the next. Unfortunately, there do not seem to be settings to make Quik less hyperactive: The result is of the ‘take it or leave it’ variety.

I have therefore subsequently abandoned Quik again, and returned to doing my own editing using iMovie. Unfortunately, the raw material got corrupted and lost in most peculiar circumstances, so I am no longer able to re-edit the Tullaghoge movie above into something more to my liking…