Village Tour

**Have a Look at Ardglass**
Click on pictures to enlarge & get more details.
	Arriving by air? Not as improbable as you might think! A runway still exists at the old wartime RAF Station at Bishopscourt, four miles away, where at least one small aircraft is permanently based. This is one of the views of the village you would see (left). The Bishopscourt runways are also used for motorcycle and car racing, and one runway is a base for microlyte flying. (We will put details on the WHAT'S ON page when they come to hand.) There is also a small airport at Newtownards where one can hire small planes by the hour.
	Arriving by road from Downpatrick? While still a mile from the village one can see the green height of Ardglass surmounted by Isabella's Tower (once a coastguard observation point.)
	Coming by road from Strangford -on the outskirts of Ardglass the ruin of the Old Church of Ardtole sits on the hill on the left - and to the right, twenty miles away, looms the Mountains of Mourne
	The Strangford and Downpatrick Roads meet at Bath Street, which leads into the village .... past the North Dock on the left ......
	..... to arrive at the graceful curve of The Crescent, set back from the road behind fine hedges and gardens. Traffic prevents stopping at this point.....
	.... better to use the public car park just across the road from the Crescent - at the Phennick Cove Marina - an ideal starting point for a pleasant walk round the central area of Ardglass.
	From the Marina car park it is worth having a further look at the tidal North Dock, built by William Ogilvie following an act of parliament in 1813. The original lighthouse was blown down in 1838 and replaced by the present fine structure in metal . The dock is a traditional refuge for fishing boats during fierce winter storms.
	If you stroll past the Crescent Kings Castle is on the right, away up the hill behind a new block of flats built this year (2001). King's Castle was built on the site of an earlier 14th century tower-house in the first years of the 19th century by Charles Russell, a corn merchant from Killough. It is now a nursing home.
	Approaching the harbour, Jordan's Castle, a 15th century defensive tower house is on the right During the Elizabethan consolidation of English rule in Ulster, Simon Jordan held out for three years against O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, until relieved by Lord Deputy Mounjoy in 1601. In the 18th century the castle became vacant and fell into disrepair. When it was bought by Francis Joseph Bigger in 1911 it was roofless. Bigger, a lawyer and antiquarian, saved it from oblivion, and when he died in 1926 he left it to the nation. It is now cared for by the Historic Monuments Division of the Department of the Environment.
	On the left is the fine modern Harbour - home port to some 30 diesel engine fishing boats and landing point for fish caught by many craft of the County Down fishing fleet based in Portavogie and Kilkeel. The natural deepwater harbour has been used in an undeveloped way for some 3,000 years, say archeologists, but it was not until the arrival of John de Courcey in 1177 that it was established as a trading port. DeCourcey had invaded north east Ireland, defeated the native Irish in several pitched battles, and set up his headquarters in Downpatrick. His rule extended over a great part of Ulster, and it was he who built the large defensive castles at Carrickfergus and Dundrum. The harbour was greatly developed by William Ogilvie, owner of Ardglass Castle, in 1850.
	On going up the hill from the harbour one arrives at the appropriately named Castle Place, which provides access to the castles of Ardglass (See below). In the square there is a fine three-storey Georgian style terrace, again built by William Ogilvie, around 1850. The terrace now houses an Italian Restaurant, the Post Office, the Village Pharmacy and a block of Flats.
	At the southern end of the Castle Place is the ruin of Margaret's Castle, a late 15th century tower-house. It is supposed that this fortified dwelling was connected to others in the area by a defensive wall, but no sign of the walls remain.
	Opposite Margaret's Castle, at the entrance to Ardglass Golf Club is Cowd Castle, another remnant of a late 15th century tower-house, thought to have been part of a defensive curtain around the port.
	A range of fortified warehouses at the harbour entrance, dating from the 12th century and known as the Newark (the New Works) was acquired by Lord Charles Fitzgerald in 1790. He converted the central section into Ardglass Castle, which he sold to William Ogilvie in 1806. The property subsequently passed to his-son-in law Charles Beauclerc, who went bankrupt in 1896. The castle and grounds were bought by a group of local men wishing to start a golf club. Ardglass Castle has been the golf clubhouse since then.
	Horn Castle is to be found between the golf club and the sea. It was part of the defensive system for the port.
	If you can find the energy to stroll up the Green Road, past Margaret's Castle, you can see on the right a small tower known as the Eye of Ardglass - a pleasant garden folly built by an adoring husband as a quiet retreat for his ailing wife, it is told..
	Further along the road is The Meadow Playing Field - an undulating soccer and Gaelic football pitch - now largely unused for football as visiting teams found that running up and down the natural hills of a meadow gave Ardglass teams an advantage, and made the game pretty exhausting.
	Isabella's Tower, above the playing fields is the landmark building first spotted from the Downpatrick Road. It marks the highest point of Ardglass. Formerly a coastguard watch tower it is now a private residence, despite the fact that it is just one tiny room on top of another.
Mourne Mountains and Coney Island - in Summer and in winter	It is worthwhile walking a few yards further along the Green Road to witness the fine view of Coney Island and the Mountains of Mourne. The Mountains of Mourne have been immortalised by Percy French's tragi/humorous ballad "Where the Mountains of Mourne Sweep Down to the Sea", and in recent years Coney Island has gained fame as the spot from whence the young Belfast born singer Van Morrison went on up over the hill to Ardglass to buy some prawns "in case we got famished!" Ah yes, "... if only every day could be like this!"