Audleys Castle.

The castle stands one mile north east of Strangford town on rocky height overlooking the northern narrows of Strangford Lough. It is a gatehouse type tower house, the entrance being defended between two projections, built in the fifteenth century by the Anglo Norman Audley family. The tower is largely intact with the lower part of the enclosing Bawn wall remaining.

According to the information panel at the castle, it was sold by John Audley in 1646 to the Ward family, on the PRO website in the Ward papers the following entrie is recorded that the property passed from "Robert Audley of Audleystown and others to Bernard Ward of Castle Ward, for £351, 10 November, 17 Charles I [1641]". It was in the aftermath of the 1641 rebellion that many of the native Irish landowners lost their lands to English planters.

Although the Audleys were of Norman descent, having been in Ireland for nearly 500 years they would have regarded themselves and been perceived by the English as Irish, many of whom were forced by various means ranging from outright confiscation, to promises of pardons being granted for complicity or alleged complicity of involvement in the 1641 rebellion.

The image on the above shows an artists impression of how the castle may have looked when it was in use.