Bagenal's Castle (Irish: ''Caisleán Bagenal'') is a 16th century

fortified house A fortified house or fortified mansion is a type of building which developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, generally with significant fortifications added. During the earlier Roman Empire, Roman period it was common for wealthy landowner ...

located in

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

, County Down, Northern Ireland. It was rediscovered in 1996, where it was found located in the

premises Premises are land and buildings together considered as a property. This usage arose from property owners finding the word in their title deeds, where it originally correctly meant "the aforementioned; what this document is about", from Latin '' ...

of the former McCann's Bakery. The castle consists of a rectangular plan with three storeys and was made with

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. During its restoration,

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

was used as the replacement material.

History

Construction

Bagenal's Castle was built in 1568 in the area of a 12th century

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

by Sir Nicholas Bagenal, who was granted ownership of the abbey by

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

in 1552.

Remodelling

The castle's appearance changed between the 18th and 19th century when the

staircase tower A staircase tower or stair tower (, also ''Stiegenturm'' or ''Wendelstein'') is a tower-like wing of a building with a circular or polygonal plan that contains a stairwell, usually a helical staircase. History Only a few examples of staircase ...

was demolished around 1760 as the castle was being remodelled as a residence and when a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

was built next to the castle around 1830. The Ordnance Survey memoirs from the

1830s The 1830s (pronounced "eighteen-thirties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1830, and ended on December 31, 1839. In this decade, the world saw a rapid rise of imperialism and colonialism, particularly in Asia and ...

mention the castle was occupied as two houses and that fragments of carved stones from it were reused for surrounding buildings. The castle was mostly forgotten by the 1830s as it was not included in the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps. The Archaeological Survey of County Down stated that the castle has long since been destroyed, despite knowledge of its history being passed through several generations. The castle was bought in 1894 and converted into a bakery. In 1947, human bones were found while new ovens were being installed in the back of the castle. The many alterations had hidden the origins of the castle, making the only evidence the stone carvings that were preserved on the bakery's walls.

Restoration

After McCann's Bakery was sold, the castle was rediscovered by a team of historians in 1996 during the bakery's demolition. The

Newry and Mourne District Council Newry and Mourne District Council () was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Down District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. It inclu ...

then made a decision to acquire the site. The castle was then scheduled for restoration by the

Northern Ireland Environment Agency The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) is an executive agency within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). It is responsible for conservation of Northern Ireland's environment and natural heritage. Ori ...

, who then entered into negotiations with the owners to see how they could accommodate it. Excavations of the site began around December 2000 and April 2003. The excavations revealed a series of stone steps that appeared to lead to a

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

and the dividing wall seen on the 1568 ground floor plan. In March 2004, a project to restore the castle was planned by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

s and managed by Kevin Baird, who hoped to restore the castle and the connecting warehouse. The project cost £2.3m in total, with £1.5m being donated by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The project began in Summer 2005, and finished around 2007. Most of the castle's original features were restored, and the castle is now home to a museum. The castle was opened to the public on 27 March 2007.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Bagenal's Castle, Newry
Official website
Buildings and structures in County Down Castles in County Down