The tower, positioned 400 metres east of both an Anglo-Norman motte and a 17th century bastioned fort, was defended by a lone sergeant and fifteen men. When Williamite infantry stormed their position, the defenders were overwhelmed, and the sergeant met a particularly harsh fate; he was hanged within sight of the nearby garrison, a brutal display meant to demoralise the remaining defenders.

The hill where this occurred became known as Sergeant’s Hill, a name that has persisted for over three centuries. George Story, who chronicled the Williamite campaign, captured the site in his 1691 sketch map of Ballymore, labelling it as ‘The Irish Serjeants hill’. His detailed account and accompanying illustrations provide one of the few contemporary visual records of this minor fortification and its tragic end.

Today, visitors to Mullaghcloe can still identify the location of this historical event. The site forms part of a broader landscape of conflict around Ballymore, where the remnants of different periods of fortification, from medieval mottes to 17th century military engineering, tell the story of centuries of strategic importance and contested control in County Westmeath.