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: Building
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 755937m, N 837123m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.259143, -5.606483
The final season’s work on the stone building adjoining the standing tower-house sought to confirm its plan and examine land beyond it to the south. Clay had been used in the lower part of the one wall of the stone building to try to prevent water seepage from the open alleyway between it and the tower-house. The interior of the building was sloping and would have not been suitable for occupation. It may have been constructed with a sharp slope to drain any water that had entered a sump formed by a covered quarry-pit within the building. The structure is assumed to have served as a warehouse. Finds from the floor included a musket ball and a clay pipe of early type, probably dating to the 16th or early 17th century, which date the abandonment of the site. The date of construction is uncertain, although a 15th-century date seems possible.
