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Tory Hill
A Beautiful and Historic Wilderness

      At a height of 372 feet, the majestic Tory Hill dominates the landscape of Manister and much of the surrounding area. With its lake, bogland and streams, this is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful and unspoilt areas of County Limerick. It commands a magnificent view of Counties Cork, Clare and Tipperary. The isolation of the area, and the cover afforded by the dense overgrowth, provide an ideal environment for large numbers of wild animals and birds.
     Situated just beside Tory Hill is Lough Nagirra, which has its source in the northern portion of the lake in a deep spring. The lake has been described as having immense depth. Wild birds sometimes gather there in large numbers. Otters, swans, heron, wild duck and geese can often be seen at the lake. People from Limerick city and county enjoy fishing there and competitions are held every year. Some people go fishing and boating on the lake.

      Known in ancient times as Dromasail, Tory Hill also has a fascinating history as well as being a site of major archaeological significance.
      Recent research indicates that Tory Hill may also be of significant geological importance. A research team at U.C.G. has discovered exceptionally thick Late-glacial deposits in a large basin near the base of the hill. With a thickness of 10 metres, they are possibly the thickest in Europe. Click here to visit the U.C.G. site for further information.
      The importance of Tory Hill's diverse natural habitats has also been documented by Dúchas, the Irish heritage service: "This site is of considerable conservation significance for the diversity of terrestrial and wetland habitats found within it, and particularly for the presence of good examples of three habitats that are listed on Annex I of the E.U. Habitats Directive." Click here to read a full version of their findings.


 
Some History of Tory Hill

      A gold collar dating from the late Bronze Age was found on Tory Hill in 1858 and is now on display in the National Museum in Dublin. The collar may be an insignia of royalty according to the eminent historian of the 19th Century, W.R. Wilde. The hill is named Drumasail Fort by several historians and it is claimed that there are structures on the hill which indicate the existence of a fort. It has been claimed that Tory Hill was once the royal seat of Munster.

      The full ancient name for Tory Hill was Cnoc Droma Asail (the Hill of the Ridge of Asal) or Druim Assail (the Ridge of Assal). This dates from about 1500 B.C. , at the end of the reign of the Firbolgs, when the sons of Ughmhor, princes of the Firbolgs, spread to different parts of Ireland. One of these princes, Asal, took up residence at Drom Asail and another, Aenghus, built the famous Dún Aenghusa fort on the Aran Islands. The plain that extends east from Tory Hill to Loch Gur was called Má Asail, the Plain of Asal.

      Tory Hill also played a role in more recent history, notably when the Earls of Kerry and Desmond encamped on the hill the night before the Second Battle of Manister (or Monasteranenagh) and viewed the battle from the summit of Tory Hill the following day, the 3rd of October, 1579.

      According to Maurice Lenihan's History of Limerick, the hill became a haunt of "numbers of freebooters and haters of English power" who "frequented its sheltered sides" during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. These outlaws were known as raparees or tories. The word 'tory' was derived from Tóraidhe for which Dinneen's Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla (1927) gives the following explanations: a tory, a robber, a highwayman or a persecuted person. As a result, the refuge of Cnoc Droma Asail became better known as Cnoc Tóraidhe, Tory Hill.

      People lived on the hill right up to the beginning of the 20th Century and the ruins of their houses are still to be seen.

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