Jordan's Castle ( ga, Caisleán MacSiurtain;

Ulster Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (', ga, Albainis Uladh), also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect of Scots language, Scots spoken in parts of Ulster in North ...

: ''Joardan's Kessel'') is a castle situated in Ardglass,

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 the ...

, Northern Ireland. The tower house known as Jordan's Castle is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the townland of Ardglass, in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council 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 t ...

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 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 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, Cowd Castle,

Margaret's Castle Margaret's Castle is a castle in Ardglass, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a small Tower house probably built in the 15th century. Only two storeys still exist but there is evidence that it was at least three storeys high. It is vaulted ab ...

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