Near Enniskillen, dominating the narrow outlet of the river Erne, Portora Castle was one of the defensive castles that consolidated the Plantation in Fermanagh. Built by the constable of Enniskillen, it is part of the belt of colonial fortresses raised around Lough Erne in the early seventeenth century.
A lock of the Plantation
The land of Portora was bought in 1612, and the castle built in 1613 by Sir William Cole, the constable of Enniskillen and a great planter of the county. Its position was strategic: it guarded the narrow outlet of the river Erne, controlling a key passage of the navigable network of Lough Erne. A survey of 1619 describes it precisely: a square bawn with four round flankers, surrounding a three-storey house — the archetype of the Plantation castle, half-residence, half-fortress.
A belt of colonial fortresses
Portora belongs to a coherent ensemble: between 1610 and 1619, several defensive castles (Monea, Tully, Castle Caldwell, Portora…) were raised around Lough Erne to consolidate the Plantation in Fermanagh. These fortresses, spaced along the waterways, formed a network intended to secure the colonised territory and control movement. Portora, with its round flankers guarding the river, was one of the links of this belt. Dr James Spottiswood, Bishop of Clogher, resided there in the 1620s. To see: the remains of the bawn and round flankers, the strategic position on the Erne, the nearness of the Portora Royal School.
Did you know?
Portora Castle nearly disappeared through the fault of schoolboys: in 1859, pupils of the neighbouring Portora Royal School — the school that would later count among its alumni Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett — tried to blow up the ruins of the castle during a gunpowder 'experiment'. The explosion seriously damaged the monument. Thus, a lock of the Plantation, which had resisted the wars of the seventeenth century, was mutilated in the nineteenth by the turbulent curiosity of a few schoolboys.
Notes
Portora Castle lies at Enniskillen, near the Portora Royal School, County Fermanagh; remains accessible. GPS to confirm. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Who built Portora Castle in 1613?
- Sir William Cole, constable of Enniskillen
- A Maguire chief
- The king of Spain
- What did the castle guard?
- The narrow outlet of the river Erne
- The Irish Sea
- The Scottish border
- What did schoolboys attempt in 1859?
- To blow up the ruins with gunpowder
- To rebuild it
- To sell it