County: Down Site name: NEWARK CASTLE, Ardglass
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: SMR 45:21
Author: Tom McNeill, Department of Archaeology, Queen's University Belfast
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 756067m, N 837103m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.258924, -5.604500
The excavation within Newark Castle was intended to determine whether the original structure was a late medieval warehouse.
The east side was found to have been disturbed by the repeated construction and removal of light modern buildings. In the north a 19th-century coach entrance had been cut down into the bedrock. Around it, however, were sands pre-dating the structure and within which medieval pottery and a bone gaming piece were found. A shell-filled pit was cut into the sand.
