Kirkistown Castle, Main Road, Kirkistown, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1J?

Kirkistown Castle is an impressive three-storey rectangular tower house of 1622, measuring approximately 9.5 metres by 7.5 metres, built of split rubble and situated on flat ground less than half a mile from the east coast of the Ards peninsula. It is topped with a tall battlemented parapet that projects slightly beyond the main walls.

The castle was built by Roland Savage of Ballygalet and remained with the Savage family until around the 1660s, when James Savage sold it to Captain James McGill of Ballymonestragh. McGill invested considerably in the property and surrounding lands. In 1683, William Montgomery described the castle as being in good repair with newly erected garden walls overlooking a fresh loch near the sea (referring to land on the east side that is now drained). By 1744, Walter Harris noted the castle as surrounded by a high wall and strongly built.

By the early nineteenth century, the castle had passed to Mary McGill's granddaughter, also named Mary, who married William Montgomery of Greyabbey. The fabric was in poor condition by this stage, and Montgomery began repairs around 1800, substantially altering the building. Windows to the north-west and north-east sides were enlarged with large pointed-arch windows fitted with gothick frames on the ground, first and second floors. Large two-storey buttresses with brick dressings were added to the south-east elevation, and a crenellated porch with a central pointed-arch doorway was built into the centre buttress. Above this porch is a smaller crenellated structure with a central pointed-arch opening. The south-west elevation retains seven small narrow windows, with flat arch heads to the four uppermost, a pointed arch head to the one below, and ogee arches to the two lowest. The north-east elevation includes three small narrow stairwell windows to the far left at various levels, with ogee-arched heads to the lower two and a semi-circular arch to the uppermost; the north-west elevation matches this but without the stairwell windows. A large rectangular chimney stack rises above parapet level, and two large structural metal straps encircle the building at first-floor level.

The original attic level was removed at some point and replaced with a concrete pitched roof above the second floor. Drainage holes are present at the bottom of the parapet. When Montgomery died around 1830, his son was a minor and work ceased. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 noted the structure had a half-finished roof and broken windows. In 1840, Montgomery's widow Mary granted the castle to the Cloughey Presbyterian congregation to hold services while their church was under construction. By 1875, Alexander Knox reported the castle had been restored and returned to use as a dwelling house by Hugh Montgomery. The Montgomery family continued to occupy it until the early twentieth century, after which it passed to the Brown family before entering state care.

The castle was originally surrounded by a bawn with two small two-level round flankers to the south and west and a gateway to the south-west. The roofless flankers remain substantially intact, and parts of the south-west, south-east and north-east walls are still standing. A fully restored two-storey rubble-built gabled barn or store, dating to around 1800, stands next to the south flanker. An extended and modernised house, originally of the eighteenth century, is inserted into the south-east wall north-east of the barn. The castle is currently being restored and is now in state care.