Sentry Hill has been long associated with the McKinney family who first came from Scotland to Ireland in the 18th century. James McKenzie, a highlander who took part in the Jacobite Rising of 1715 fled to Ireland in 1716 with Helen Campbell, his fiancée. The Campbell clan had fought on the Hanoverian side and Helen’s family were opposed to her marrying a ‘rebel’. James and Helen were married in Carnmoney Presbyterian Church in 1717. It was not until the 1780s that a grandson, Andrew, occupied Sentry Hill.