Clough Castle


Clough Castle, County Down
Photo © Ardfern, 1 October 2009
Clough Castle, County Down
Photo © Ardfern, 1 October 2009

Clough Castle is the site of an Anglo-Norman Motte-and-bailey situated in Clough, County Down, Northern Ireland, near the junction of the A25 and A24 roads.[1] Clough Castle Motte and bailey and tower are State Care Historic Monuments in the townland of Clough, in Down District Council area.

Features

It is an excellent example of an Anglo-Norman earthwork castle with an added stone tower. A small kidney-shaped bailey lies south of a large mound, originally separated from it by a 2.1m deep ditch.[1] On top of the 25ft high motte is a stone tower, enlarged to become a tower house in the 15th century. It is sited off-centre as much of the rest of the top of the motte was occupied by a large hall, which apparently burned down. Around the motte is a ditch, and on the south-east side a low crescent shaped bailey, whoich was probably once joined to the motte by a wooden bridge.[2]

Excavations

Excavations on the summit of the mound in 1950 revealed that originally (in the late 12th or early 13th century) the top of the motte was surrounded by a timber palisade within which were pits for archers. Also found was the foundations of a long rectangular hall in the north-east half of the area, probably built in the mid 13th century. Later in the same century a small rectangular stone keep was built to the south-west, two storeys high and surviving to this day, having been conserved in 1981-82. In the late Middle Ages, after what appears to have been a period of disuse, it was restored and added to, resulting in an L-shaped tower house.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (1983). Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland. Belfast: HMSO. p. 98. 
  2. ^ Harbinson, P. (1992). Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. p. 107. 

 

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