This castle is situated in the parish of Galloon, Barony of Coole, County Fermanagh. It stands on the east bank of Lough Erne, about sixteen miles from Enniskillen.

The name Crom, or Crum, signifies “sloping” or “crooked.”

The remains of the chief walls form a square of about 50 feet, which does not coincide with the measurements given in several inquisitions. Some of the stones have evidently been carried off for building purposes since the building was burnt in 1764.

The position of the castle was commanded by wooded hills, and it is built so near the shore that the waves dash against it in winter time. It seems to have had no outer ring of defences, and it is therefore even more wonderful how it should have been successfully defended in two sieges.

The marks of the cannonading are now covered by a heavy growth of ivy.

Michael Balfour, laird of Mountwhany in Fifeshire, began to erect the fortress in 1611, when granted the manor of Crum, under the plantation scheme of Ulster.

In 1616 he sold the property to Sir Stephen Butler, and in 1619 Nicholas Pynnar describes Crum as follows: “Upon this proportion there is a bawne of lime and stone, being 60 feet square, 12 feet high with two flankers. Within the bawne there is a house of lime and stone.”

The Rev. George Hill states that the castle was built by Butler and Balfour at great expense, so it is likely to have been added to after it changed hands.

In 1629 another inquisition describes it as “One bawne of stone and lime, containing 61 feet every way and 15 feet in height; and within the same is one castle, or capital messuage, built in like manner of lime and stone containing 22 feet each way.”

Crum was leased to Dr. James Spottiswood, Bishop of Clogher, in 1624.

It must for a short time after this have been possessed by the M’Manuses, who offered it for sale at £100 and 100 cows. Among the State Papers of 1646 is preserved Sir William Cole’s petition to the Commissioners to be advanced £160, so that he might become the purchaser. He promises to return the money if unsuccessful, and says it is the only hold the rebels have in the country and “a place of good strength.” The money appears to have been sent.

We find, however, in 1645, that it is mentioned in Bishop Spottiswood’s will, and through his daughter marrying Colonel Abraham Creichton the leasehold passed to that family.

It was afterwards converted into a perpetuity, subject to a small head rent, which was bought out by the Earl of Erne in 1810 from Brinsley, 4th Earl of Lanesborough, a descendant of Francis Butler.

In the struggle for the Crown between James and William, Crum was twice unsuccessfully besieged.

It was a place of considerable importance, as it commanded the waterway between Enniskillen and Belturbet.

The first attempt was made in March, 1689.

Colonel Abraham Creichton, although an old man, had fortified the castle and garrisoned it with his tenants and retainers. Lord Galmoy arrived at Belturbet with a considerable force belonging to King James’s army, but found the roads so boggy as to be impassable for cannon. He therefore decided to make some mock guns by which to frighten the garrison into submission.

They were manufactured out of tin, measured about a yard long and 8 inches in the bore. They were bound together with fine cord twisted round them, and the whole covered with a kind of buckram to represent the colour of a real cannon.

To this sham artillery sixteen horses were harnessed and they were brought to Crum with a great show of difficulty and much apparent urging of the animals.

As soon as they were within ordinary range of the fortress Lord Galmoy demanded its surrender, and upon being refused he tried to fire one of his fraudulent guns with a wooden bullet, but it burst and nearly killed the gunner.

He then began a systematic siege and sent messengers to Enniskillen to demand that garrison’s surrender too.

The governor of the town at once despatched two hundred firelocks to relieve the castle of Crum. Some were sent by water and some by land during the night, but daylight had arrived before they reached their destination.

The besiegers opposed their landing, but nevertheless they forced their way into the castle with the loss of only one boatman, while Lord Galmoy’s party lost several.

A sally was at once made from the fortress, and the besiegers were driven from their trenches with a loss of thirty or forty men, and the garrison captured the mock guns and took two suits of armour and several other valuable things.

Lord Galmoy then retreated to Belturbet.

Colonel Creichton’s son David, then a lad of eighteen, greatly distinguished himself during the conflict.

Although the castle was unprovided with cannon, great execution was done by the long fowling-pieces generally used for wild fowl on the lake.

Lord Galmoy was standing on a hill about an English mile distant from the castle, with a glass of wine in his hand, which he was about to drink to the confusion of the garrison, when a fowler from the fortress shattered the glass he was raising and killed the man beside him.

At this time a Captain MacGuire was prisoner at Crum, and Lord Galmoy proposed to Colonel Creichton to exchange Captain Dixey for him. This was agreed to, but when MacGuire was sent, Lord Galmoy, instead of returning Dixey, had him hanged with a cornet named Charleton.

Captain MacGuire was so disgusted with the treachery that he returned to Crum and threw up his commission in James’s army.

Lord Galmoy also enticed Colonel Creichton to a parley, and would have put him to death, too, had not Lord Mountcashel rescued the old man and conducted him safely back to his castle.

The following year Crum was again besieged, and Colonel Creichton sent an urgent message to Enniskillen to say that the besiegers had brought cannon with them. The next day he sent another message saying that Lieutenant-General MacCarthy had begun to batter the fortress.

This was Monday, and Colonel Wolseley returned answer that they should be relieved on Wednesday, and in the meantime he despatched orders for reinforcements to Ballyshannon.

A strong detachment set out, therefore, from Enniskillen to the castle’s relief, but upon their approach the enemy withdrew to Newtownbutler, where a great engagement was fought that shattered the cause of James II. in the north of Ireland. The garrison of Crum Castle greatly distinguished themselves in this engagement.

The David Creichton, who was eighteen at the time of the siege, finally succeeded his nephew in the estate. He left an only son, who was created Lord Erne, and it was in his lifetime that the castle was burnt.

A letter from Lord Shannon, dated September 1, 1764, is still in the family’s possession, in which he condoles with his kinsman for the destruction of his castle. “Unhappy indeed to be consumed by a few accidental sparks of fire when it had so bravely withstood the firing of 6,000 men so many years ago.”

To the south of the fortress along the side of the lake lay the castle gardens, in the centre of which still grows a magnificent yew-tree, under which tradition records an O’Neill and his lady-love parted in the reign of Oueen Elizabeth upon the former being attainted for high treason.

Henry, however, writing in 1739, says it was only planted about seventy years previously. It is 25 feet in height, while the trunk is 12 feet in girth. The circumference of the branches is 120 feet.

It was the custom for many years for sportsmen on the lake to fire a salute when passing the ruined fortress, which produced a most wonderful echo, as if the shot had been answered by a volley.