Portaferry Castle, Castle Street, Portaferry, Co Down

This is a ruined tower house, likely dating from the later 15th or early 16th century. It stands on the west side of Castle Street, close to Portaferry town centre. The tower house is a three-storey structure built of castellated split-stone rubble, square in plan and measuring approximately 10.5 by 10 metres. A square turret is located on the southwest side of the building; this turret, including a stone spiral stair, is largely intact. Unusually, this staircase rises in an anti-clockwise direction. The interior of the main tower is largely gone, with only traces of door and chimney openings, as well as indications of supports for floor joists remaining. Brickwork around fireplaces and other openings is not original. A trace of the original pitched roof gable is visible on the northwest side. A large section of the northeast corner, above ground floor level, has collapsed, and traces of a gable from an adjoining building—likely James Montgomery’s 17th-century “fair slated stone house”—are present on this side. The site is surrounded by modern landscaping, including shrubbery.

The castle was built by the Savage family, probably in the late 15th or early 16th century and reflects the diminishing power of crown government and the growth in localised disorder in the region. In 1635, Sir James Montgomery, Patrick Savage’s brother-in-law, repaired the castle by roofing and flooring it, creating window openings with stone cases. The castle was occupied by the Savage family until 1765. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, the building suffered damage from an officer’s family who were quartered in it following the Irish rebellion around 1798-1801.