In Ulster Folklore, published in 1913, Elizabeth Andrews describes a visit to the old church at Killelagh near Maghera, where her guide said the mortar had been cemented with the blood of bullocks. She comments that this probably recalls an ancient custom in which an animal, or in still earlier times a person, was killed to turn away evil spirits and make a building stand.
She adds that a similar tradition exists about Roughan Castle, the stronghold of Phelim O'Neill, in County Tyrone. She does not say who told her this or when it was first said.
The notion of a foundation sacrifice appears in building folklore across Ireland and Britain. Here it survives as a one-line note about a Tyrone castle, but it is an early record that the belief was attached to Tyrone buildings as well as Derry ones.
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