Mahee Castle
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Mahee Castle (also Nendrum Castle , Irish Caisleán Naondroma ) is a small ruined castle near the Nendrum Monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough in County Down, Northern Ireland . Captain Thomas Browne had the residential tower built in 1570. It was inhabited until the beginning of the 17th century and then fell into disrepair. In 1923, HC Lawlor and the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society partially renovated the residential tower to halt further deterioration and built a buttress to support the tower's northwest corner.
location
Mahee Castle is on the west side of Mahee Island. It is located near a causeway that is the only land connection to the island. Today a narrow road leads over this dam. Mahee Island is located off the west coast of Strangford Lough, southeast of the town of Comber . The residential tower is built on a drumlin . There is a parking lot nearby.
architecture
The rectangular residential tower watches over the dam to the island and to the southwest of it lie the remains of an enclosure wall, a bawn. Mahee Castle includes a boat landing site on the lakeshore and is relatively small; it only has two rooms on the ground floor. The main building, the residential tower, is three stories high, but little of the two upper stories has been preserved. The entrance leads under a Meurtrière .
history
An English officer, Captain Thomas Browne , had the residential tower built in 1570 after sending a petition to the Bishop of Down. The castle was abandoned in the early 17th century. The corner stones were believed to have been removed for use on local construction projects, and blocks from the northeast wall were used to build the dam. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Mahee Castle was on the border between two territories: Clandeboye in the north and Dufferin in the south. At that time there were border conflicts over this area and Mahee Castle probably changed hands several times.
In 1923 the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society undertook restoration work under the leadership of HC Lawlor . As part of this work, ivy was removed from the walls, cracks were filled with cement, the roof was sealed, and a buttress was added to support the northeast corner of the tower.
Excavations
Archaeological digs were carried out at Mahee Castle in 2001 and 2002 as part of a program funded by the Environment and Heritage Service of Ireland . These also included detailed stratigraphic sequencing, finding remains of animals and remains from the late Middle Ages . This means that the building could have existed as early as 1570. The aim of the excavations was to initiate a restoration program.
Archaeological finds included shells and animal bones, knives and a range of pottery from different countries. Large amounts of modern glass were found, along with flint and ceramic shards. The excavations revealed that the residential tower was built on an artificial terrace that was created for this purpose at the northeast end of the Drumlin. The rear end of the terrace was stabilized by a longwall wall built in 1923, four meters from the southwest end of the tower.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Philip Macdonald: Data Structure Report: Mahee Castle, Mahee Island, County Down (pdf) Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ a b c Late Medieval Monuments . Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ Lonely Planet Counties Down & Armagh: Chapter from Ireland Travel Guide . Lonely Planet. June 1, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 30 '3.4 " N , 5 ° 38' 54.5" W.