Ringhaddy Castle (Tower House)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ruined remains of a 15th century tower house, partly rebuilt c.1600. The building is located on a narrow neck of land to the S of Castle Island, where the island joins the Ringhaddy peninsula- itself off the W coast of Strangford Lough, c.3 miles SW of Killinchy.

The building is three storey with a gable level and constructed in rubble. Almost all of the S W and N walls have survived but some sections of E wall are missing. To the SW corner is a full height square tower with the remains of a stair tower to the NE corner. To the W rises a tall chimney stack whose upper section is harled. Fire places are still present to the first and second floors of the internal face of the W wall, though both have recently inserted timber lintels, with their grates partly patched in brick. There are window openings of various sizes throughout to the upper floors. A second floor window to the left on the W wall has what appears to be a recently added stone ‘frame’.

The walls appear to have been harled at one stage and repointing appears to have been carried out in recent times to large sections of the stone work. The S wall is abutted by the gable of a two storey outbuilding, of probable mid 19th century date.

This castle is now in state care. SM Down 17:16.

Historical information

Ringhaddy Castle is believed to have been built in the 15th century, possibly by a branch of the Savages of The Ards. It is indicated on various 16th century maps of the area including that by Mercator of 1595. Much of the early history of the building is uncertain, but in c.1600 it was captured by Sir Ralph Lane, the Muster Master General, from Bryan McArt and his Hebridean allies. McArt’s men demolished the upper floors of the castle before retreating, forcing Sir Ralph to appoint Edward Brookes, ‘Seneschal of his country’, to rebuild much of the structure and ‘put into it a guard of fifteen English and thirty Irish’. This Brookes had completed by October 1602.

Little is known of the later history of the castle. It was in ruins by the 1830s and, as it is not mentioned by Walter Harris in his 1744 history/description of Down, was presumably disused long before this date. The castle is now in state care.

References- Primary sources
1 QUB Calendar of State Papers Ireland, 1601-3, p.319, 502.
2 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.89.

Secondary sources
1 John Stevenson ‘Two Centuries of Life in Down 1600-1800’ (reprint Belfast 1990), p.18 [Copy of an [?]early 16th century map showing Ringhaddy Castle.]
2 ‘Archaeological Survey of Co. Down’ (HMSO Belfast 1966), p.248-50, 309.
3 A.J. Hughes and R.J. Hannan ‘Place-Names of Northern Ireland Vol.II, The Ards’ (QUB 1992). [Front cover has a reproduction of Mercator’s 1595 map.]
4 EHS SM Down 24:12.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ruins of a 15th century tower house, partly rebuilt c.1600.