Ardglass Castle and Horn Castle (Ardglass Golf Club)

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A view fron the Downs (now Ardglass Golf club) around 1850

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In 1170 a group of disgruntled mainly Welsh knights, led by Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster, known as Strongbow invaded Ireland with the blessing of King Henry II. In 1177 one of these knights Sir John De Courcy had subdued the area of Lecale and built his castle in Downpatrick. Bringing in supplies was vitally important for De Courcy’s efforts to hold on to power, especially with the native Irish still resentful of his presence. He needed to find a bay with sufficient depth for his ships; Ardglass, seven miles from his headquarters was his closest answer.
One of his knights, an adventurer and later mentioned in the Magna Carter, was Sir Jordan De Saukville. He was controlling then Ardglass area and even had the King of England staying with him, ’On the 12th of July 1210 King John stayed at ‘Castrum Jordani de Sackville’
As the Norman hold in the area strengthened Ardglass developed. A trading warehouse was needed and around the commencement of the 15th Century in the reign of HenryVI, the ‘Newerk’ or ‘New Works’ was in existence with a London trading company settled at Ardglass. The actual name ‘Newerk’ is first mentioned in an Inquisition in 1426 as ‘one messuage called Newerk in Ardglass’ being owned by a Gascon knight called Janico Dartas or D’artois.
The ‘Newerk’ warehouses which would not only need water for human and animal consumption but also for the related commerce, such as preparing cow hides and salting fish, would need a to be positioned around a large well close to the bay. The well is supplied from one of the numerous springs, which occur on the ‘Downs’, our first and eighteenth fairways. Beside the ‘Newerk warehouse’ was Horn Castle where the present professionals shop is today. It is believed that it may have got its name from all the animal bones that were found in and around the castle and was likely to have been an area where food was cooked and eaten.  It is also highly probable that the slaughter of cattle, the salting of meat and the tanning of hides took place in this area. Tanning requires a great deal of water and our well supplied it in ample quantities.
The well also served it original purpose, to supply a besieged force with water, when in 1601 Ardglass was under siege and Simon Jordan of Jordan’s castle held out for three years until relieved by Lord Mountjoy.  From around 1641 the town declined as a port.
The next time the ‘Newerk’ warehouse is mentioned is when Lord Charles Fitzgerald, son of the Duke of Leinster removed half the ‘Newerk’ and built what is today’s Golf Club. It was during this renovation that the animal bones werefound at Horn Castle and this is how it got its name.

Ardglass Castle with its three towers and Horn Castle to the left