Audley's Castle
Audley's Castle is a 15th century castle about 1 mile northeast of the village of Strangford in County Down, Northern Ireland . It is located on a rocky knoll above Strangford Lough . It is a three-story residential tower named after its 16th century owner, John Audley . The residential tower and the Bawn ( curtain wall ) of Audley's Castle is a State Care Historic Monument in Town Country of Castle Ward in District Newry, Morne and Down .
There are thousands of small stone towers resembling Audley's Castle in the Irish countryside, indicating that they were not buildings for the high nobility , but for the lower nobility. Most of them were built in the late Middle Ages (around 1350–1550). Audley's Castle was built towards the end of this period.
construction
Audley's Castle consists of a residential tower in a bawn, which is enclosed by a thin wall with a simple gate. In the south the castle is protected by a cliff. The stone walls of the Bawn have collapsed down to low foundations, but you can still see the rectangular layout. On the southeast side of the Bawn lie the foundations of an outbuilding, presumably a barn or servants' house. The residential tower is in the north corner of the Bawn. The south-east facade of the residential tower is defined by two protruding, square tourelles , which are connected by an arch at the level of the parapet, a machicolation through which objects could be thrown at any attacker on the door in the southern tourelle below. The room on the ground floor can be reached via a small lobby that had a meurtrière in the roof. The room is lit through narrow loopholes and equipped with a wall cupboard and a wardrobe. In the southern Tourelle there is a spiral staircase that leads to the two chambers on the upper floors and to the roof.
The chamber on the first floor has a barrel vault that should protect against the spread of fire. A series of cantilever pedestals and protruding consoles on the walls show how the vault was constructed. Window seats, an open fireplace, two cupboards and a latrine (in the eastern Tourelle) show that the chamber on the 1st floor was the main living room in the castle. The chamber on the 2nd floor does not have an open fireplace, but has window seats and a latrine in the eastern Tourelle. She could have been the bedroom. Above this chamber is the roof with a wall behind a parapet and higher corner turrets, most of which have been destroyed today. The castle had a sloping roof and, as a drawing from 1840 shows, a gable wall that later collapsed. The wooden roof of the castle was probably covered with slate, wooden shingles, stones or thatch.
The residential tower has a main room with one or two side rooms on each floor. The ground floor has small windows, no open fireplace and no latrine. It was probably used for storage purposes. The upper floor has better windows, as well as an open fireplace and access to a latrine: this was the room where the owner lived and received guests. It also has a drain for dirty water, so you can assume that the large open fireplace was also used for cooking. The second floor was believed to be the lord's private room for sleeping and family life. Servants and other people could live in the attic . A spiral staircase leads to the rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors and to the roof. The room on the first floor has a reconstructed wooden floor and a stone barrel vault.
There is very little historical information about the buildings in the small courtyard around Audley's Castle. Only a few towers had courtyard walls at all and their buildings were certainly less important than the tower itself. The towers in different parts of the country differ, whereby regional peculiarities can be recognized. Audley's Castle, with its two tourelles connected by an arch, is of a special design that can only be found in County Down.
history
The castle is believed to date from the 15th century, but its early history is unknown. It was named after its owners in the late 16th century, the Audleys. This was a Hiberno-Norman family who owned land in the area in the 13th century. However, it is not known whether they built the castle. In 1646 Audley's Castle and the surrounding property were sold to the Ward family and since 1738 it served as an eye-catcher on the sweeping view over Castle Ward's man-made lake , Temple Water .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland: Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, Belfast 1983. pp. 97-98.
- ↑ P. Harbinson : Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland . Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1992. pp. 105-106.
- ↑ Audley's Castle . In: Environment and Heritage Service NI - State Care Historic Monuments . Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
- ↑ a b c d Audley's Castle, Co Down . In: Chrono Center, QUB . Archived from the original on August 4, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
- ↑ Laurence Flanagan : A Dictionary of Irish Archeology . Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1992. p. 21.
- ^ Plantagenet Somerset Fry : Castles in Britain and Ireland . David & Chambers, Newton Abbot 2001. p. 196.
- ↑ a b c C. J. Donnelly : Living Places . Institute of Irish Studies, QUB, Belfast 1997. pp. 100-102.
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 22 ′ 46.5 ″ N , 5 ° 34 ′ 19 ″ W.