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We are looking at a map made by a military surveyor, John Thomas, in February 1594, which shows the siege and capture of Maguire’s Castle at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. The most important feature on the map is the Castle or Tower House of a ruling lord, ‘Maguire of Maguire’s County’, subsequently County Fermanagh, which was an island fortress in Lough Erne.
The castle itself was measured as being 56 feet high, 56 feet broad, and 38 feet in width, and the thickness of the walls was said to be 8 feet. Accordingly we have a very good representation of a Gaelic chieftain’s stronghold.
Since the drawing of the castle itself was remarkably accurate, the rest may be too, and so we get a good impression of the number of other houses in the vicinity of a Gaelic lord’s stronghold in late 16th-century Ulster. We also have a number of ‘cots’ which was the word for ‘boats’ which were in use on Lough Erne at that time.
The map shows that the Castle is under attack and if you look to either side you can see the position of the troops of two captains who were engaged in this. We can also see some of their ordnance and equipment - for example, there are robinets and falchions, there are also musketeers in action. Scaling is going on, and the soldiers are positioned spread-out in different positions around us.
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