Jordan's Castle ( ga, Caisleán MacSiurtain; Ulster Scots: ''Joardan's Kessel'') is a castle situated in

Ardglass Ardglass () is a coastal fishing village, townland (of 321 acres) and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland, in the historic barony of Lecale Lower. It is still a relatively important fishing harbour. It is situated on the B1 Ard ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

, Northern Ireland. The tower house known as Jordan's Castle is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

of Ardglass, in the

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Newry, Mourne and Down District Council ( Irish: ''Comhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin'') is a local authority in Northern Ireland that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaces Down District Council and Newry and Mourne Distri ...

area, at grid ref: J5601 3713. It stands close to the junction of Kildare and Quay Streets in Ardglass and commands the harbour.

Features

The entrance is at the bottom of the north-west tower and leads to a spiral stairway to roof level. It is protected by a

machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at ...

at that level. The ''Dublin Penny Journal'' of 30 March 1833 describes Jordan's Castle as follows:

History

It was also extensively used for get-togethers of the wide circle of Irish Cultural revival artists and writers to whom Bigger was friend and patron. Following suggestions by

Alice Stopford Green __NOTOC__ Alice Stopford Green (30 May 1847 – 28 May 1929) was an Irish historian and nationalist. She was born Alice Sophia Amelia Stopford in Kells, County Meath. Her father Edward Adderley Stopford was Rector of Kells and Archdeacon of ...

and the archivist Henry Egan Kenny, Bigger renamed the tower "Castle Seán' in honour of the two years when Shane O'Neill (Seán Ó Néill) controlled Ardglass, and they believed, re-fortified the tower following his defeat of the MacDonnells at

Glentaisie Glentaisie ( Irish: ''Taoibhgeal'', en, of the bright cheeks) is one of the nine Glens of Antrim in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was shaped during the Ice Age by glaciers. The glen is most northerly of the nine glens and lies at the foot o ...

in 1565.Stopford Green, Alice 'A Castle in Ardglass' in ''The Old Irish World'', Gill & MacMillan (Dublin and London, 1912), pp. 141. The contents have since been dispersed among the Ulster Museums general collections and the tower is no longer open to the public. Cannon outside Jordan's Castle

Ardglass had at least six castles and remains of four of them can still be seen:

Ardglass Castle Ardglass Castle (also known as The Newark) is situated in Ardglass, County Down, Northern Ireland. It was originally a row of 15th century warehouses by the harbour. Large sections of the original building can still be seen within the modern clu ...

, Cowd Castle, Margaret's Castle and Jordan's Castle.

References

External links

Environment and heritage Service – Jordan's Castle
{{Authority control Castles in County Down Ruined castles in Northern Ireland Ardglass Northern Ireland Environment Agency properties Tower houses in Northern Ireland

Features

History

See also

References

External links