Hillsborough Fort Guard - Ireland's oldest formal military presence - will re-enact ancient ceremony

And to mark their renaissance, and at the same time highlight their history, they will perform an ancient ceremony in the royal village at 2pm on Saturday.

Andrew Carlisle, who has been the guard’s bugler since 2006, said: “On Saturday will be having the Ceremony of the Keys – it’s the first time we’ve done this. It’s to get people asking, ‘who are these people and what’s this about?’”

He continued: “The village stood on the main road from Carrickfergus to Dublin, and so a fort was built to protect it.

"Going back two or three hundred years there would have been a nightly ceremony of securing the boundary of the fort.

“You had to pass through the fort if you were on the road, the guard were like a customs and excise or constabulary of the village. It makes us the oldest formal military presence in Ireland.

“We’re trying to encourage people to look at the history and embrace the Hillsborough story, enhance their visit to the village.”

Andrew explained something of the fort guard’s history: “In 1660 King Charles II issued a royal charter granting it the status of a military fort and making the head of the Hill family the hereditary Constable of the Fort.

"The constable has the right to appoint 20 warders or ‘Castlemen’ for the protection of the fort. This is the Hillsborough Fort Guard. This tradition continues to the present day.

“In 1894 the government ceased payment for the guard and there was no further warders recruited. The last time it was at full strength was the early 1900s. The last warder died in 1955, but the position of bugler was always retained.

"The ninth Marquess of Downshire, Nicholas Hill, is the current constable. In 2021 for the first time in over 100 years he issued new warrants for warders. There’s currently seven of us in uniform.”

The bugler’s role at Hillsborough Castle for royal visits and large functions is to announce the arrival of VIPs. On top of that the guard, who are all voluntary, aim to preserve their unique tradition.

Andrew said: “We’re in schools, we’re educating, we do walking tours of the village. It’s such a unique piece of history, if it fell by the wayside it would never come back.

“We’re Ireland’s Beefeaters. We were here before the Battle of the Boyne. It’s something to be cherished.”

Andrew had been asked some years ago to compose a bugle fanfare for the proclamation of the new King and in the run up to the Queen’s Jubilee he was asked to compose a fanfare that would signal the lighting of the Commonwealth beacons.

"That was first sounded at Hillsborough Fort by me that night and then it cascaded through the Commonwealth.

Of the proclamation which was played for King Charles III after his mother’s death, he said: "It’s a bit strange to write something for an occasion when you don’t know what the feeling is going to be like.

"It was very special for the guard as well as myself.”

Visitors to the website hillsboroughfortguard.org are able to become Friends of Hillsborough Fort Guard and play a part in keeping history alive.