Tower on The Motte, off Moat Street, Donaghadee, Co Down

Tower on The Motte

This tower, built around 1821 and styled as a picturesque castle, stands prominently on top of a steep 12th or 13th-century motte overlooking Donaghadee harbour. It was originally constructed as a gunpowder store for use in blasting rock during the construction of the nearby harbour, and was handed over to the town of Donaghadee in 1945 by then landlord George Delacherois.

The building consists of two connected cube-like sections. The shorter southern section, roughly two storeys high, contains a tall semicircular-headed doorway to its west face with bevelled reveal and a panelled bronze door reached by three stone steps. On the south and east faces are tall semicircular arch-headed blind windows, also with bevelled reveals. The southwest and northeast corners feature square turrets with corbelled castellated parapets, each with two long slit recesses on the fully exposed outer faces. To the north facade of this section is a short recessed corridor connecting to the taller section, topped with security railings.

The taller northern section has blind windows to its east, west and north facades. An octagonal turret stands at each corner of this section, each with three long slit recesses on two of the outer faces. A marble plaque on the west facade records the 1945 handover to the town. Rising from the centre of the roof of this section is a round tower, just over half the height of the northern section, which has four window openings and a parapet. A tall flagpole rises from within the tower, which appears to have no roof.

The building is constructed of rubble masonry with a rendered brick facade. The bevelled base is in rubble, and significant sections of rubble masonry remain exposed, particularly to the south end. Small sections of render have fallen away, revealing brick construction beneath. All sections feature castellated parapets and blind slit windows adding dramatic effect to the composition.

Immediately north of the building stands a relatively short section of tall rubble walling with castellations, turret-like piers and slit recesses. This wall has a ruined appearance, as if it were the last remaining section of a bailey wall, though it appears to have been deliberately constructed to look like a ruin, as there is no evidence of any other walling ever having existed.

The tower is approached along a path to the southwest, whose lower section passes over a single arched rubble-built bridge spanning the ditch at the base of the motte. The motte itself is a scheduled site. The listing extends to both the tower and the bridge.