Dundrum Castle

Dundrum Castle was raised by John de Courcy some time near the beginning of the thirteenth century, following his invasion of Ulster, and was built to control access into Lecale from the west and south. It stands on the top of a rocky hill commanding fine views south over Dundrum Bay and the Mourne Mountains, west towards Slieve Croob, and east across the plains of Lecale.

De Courcy's first castle may have had defences of earth and timber, but the stone curtain wall of the upper ward was probably built at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Like other early enclosure walls it had no towers, defence being assisted instead by covered walks along the outside wall-head. An early timber hall may have stood near the keep, where a double-latrine survives in the curtain wall.

In 1203 de Courcy was expelled from Ulster by Hugh de Lacy. The earliest reference to the castle comes in the mid-thirteenth-century Chronicle of Mann, which records de Courcy's unsuccessful attempt to besiege "the castle of Rath" in 1205 with the aid of one hundred ships belonging to his brother-in-law Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles. Five years later, in 1210, the castle was captured by King John.

Hugh de Lacy strengthened Dundrum with a massive round keep, probably employing master masons from the Welsh Marches where such keeps were then in fashion. Much of its second floor was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, but the surviving fireplace flue and spiral stair show that it originally stood at least three storeys high. The basement served for storage and had a cistern below the first floor, which appears to have been the lord's great chamber for day-to-day living; the floor above would have housed his private chamber.

The castle remained Crown property until de Lacy was allowed to return to his earldom in 1226. It was probably after his second tenure as Earl of Ulster, from 1227 to 1243, that the twin-towered gatehouse similar to the one at Pembroke Castle was inserted in the curtain wall, a lopsided design with only one projecting tower to guard the approach along a narrow ramp from the south-west.

The stone curtain wall of the outer bailey is likely to have been built by the Mac Artáin chiefs of Kinelarty, who owned Dundrum in the late fifteenth century. At some point after 1333 the castle was managed by their cousins the Magennis clan, and it is sometimes called Magennis Castle.

The Earl of Kildare briefly captured it in 1517, as did Lord Deputy Grey in 1538. In 1601 Phelim Magennis Mac Artáin and his son Donal Oge Mac Artáin surrendered the castle to Lord Mountjoy.

Dundrum was made over to Lord Cromwell in 1605 and sold to Sir George Blundell in 1636. The Mac Artáin clan were possibly regranted the castle, but later had it repossessed by the Parliamentarians, who dismantled it in 1652 after withdrawing their garrison. After 1660 the Blundells returned and built a gabled L-shaped mansion in the south-west corner of the outer bailey.

That dwelling was ruined by the time the property passed to the second Marquess of Downshire in the early nineteenth century, though the trees on the hill were probably planted around then. The castle and its grounds were placed in State Care by the seventh Marquess in 1954. It is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Dundrum, in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, operated by the Department for Communities, and an important example of Norman architecture regularly visited by tourists and school parties. The archaeological programme Time Team devoted an episode to the site, broadcast on 24 February 2013.