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We are looking here at a picture-map by Richard Bartlett. Richard Bartlett was a military cartographer who travelled with the English campaigns of the late 16th century, recording Mountjoy’s occupation and battles throughout Ulster in the Years 1600, 1601 and 1602. This was a dangerous occupation: it is thought that Richard Bartlett was the spy referred to as having been caught by O’Neill and having been executed, and it is possible that this is why some of Richard Bartlett’s drawings are unfinished, that they lack the labels which name the places shown on the picture-maps.
The picture-map itself is a cartoon illustrating Mountjoy’s conquest. At the top we have an attack by the English army on an Irish crannog (a lakeside, man-made dwelling). In the middle we have Dungannon, O’Neill’s heartland castle. In the middle we have Dungannon Castle, O’Neill’s main stronghold - abandoned by him, captured and destroyed by Mountjoy and, from the tower, proudly flying the flag of Saint George - deliberately drawn by Bartlett to symbolise the English domination of this site.
One can particularly focus on the one surviving site, however - the third part of the drawing, at the bottom - Tullaghoagh Fort. In its foreground stands the stone throne: this site was the inauguration place of the O’Neills where O’Neill was crowned. When Mountjoy captured this site - a large, circular earthwork on the top of a hill - the stone throne was thrown down and destroyed. The earthwork today survives as a stark, tree-covered circular mound, all that remains of the celebrations of the O’Neill inauguration.
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