County: Down Site name: JORDAN'S CASTLE, Ardglass
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 45:20 Licence number: —
Author: Mark Gardiner, Department of Archaeology, Queen's University Belfast
Site type: House - medieval
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 756017m, N 837103m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.258940, -5.605266
Excavations examined two areas either side of the trench dug in 1998 (Excavations 1998, 31), which had uncovered a substantial wall to the east of the tower-house. Trench C was intended to determine the western limit of the quarry found in the earlier work and to provide a section across it.
A floor of stone flags with a drain was found above the level of the quarry. The floor is provisionally identified as that of a byre and dated by associated pottery to the 17th or early 18th century. The southern wall of the byre was set against a more substantial wall identical in construction to that found in 1998 and almost certainly its counterpart.
It now appears that during the later medieval period a building was constructed next to the tower-house from stone extracted from a quarry dug inside the structure. Excavation sectioned the quarry to its full depth, and, although no artefacts were recovered, stone chippings and mortar in the backfill provide confirmation of its character.
A second trench (D) uncovered a street that gave access to the door of the tower-house from the harbour. It had a drain on one side and a single, deep post-hole that may have marked the position of a gate.
BT7 1NN
