N is for Narrow Water Castle

A – Z OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

N is for Narrow Water Castle

 

Today we travel across the sea to Northern Ireland

to

Narrow Water Castle in County Down, Northern Ireland

 

 

Narrow Water Castle is a 16^th Century tower house and bawn* near Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland. Narrow Water Keep lies on the Co. Down bank of the Newry River, which enters Carlingford Lough a mile to the south.

*A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding the tower hour and its original purpose wa to protect cattle from attack.  They include trenches that were often strengthened with stakes or hedges which were gradually replaced by walls. 

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons

Narrow Water Keep is beside the A2 dual carriage road on the Co. Down bank of the Newry River, which enters Carlingford Lough a mile to the south.    In 1670 it was sold to Francis Hall and the family owned it until 1956, since then it has been a state care historic monument in the townland of Narrow Water in the Newry and Mourne District.  It guards the narrowest point on Carlingford Lough.  Parking is permitted on the hard shoulder outside the castle. 

The entrance to the Keep

There has been a keep on this site since 1212. It was originally built by Hugh deLacy, Earl of Ulster, as part of the Norman fortifications, to prevent attacks on Newry via the river. The castle was destroyed in the 1641 Rebellion.

Narrow Water Castle, looking south (the road is to the left of the picture)

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons

 Although apparently built for military purposes, Narrow Water Castle is a typical example of the tower houses found throughout Ireland from the 15th until the earlier 17th century. This form of building, normally rectangular in plan and three or more storeys high, comprised a series of superimposed chambers, with stairs, closets and latrines skilfully contrived within the walls or sometimes contained in projecting angle turrets.

In 1744 till at least 1819 a saltworks was built inside the walls and in 1834 it was used as kennels.

Narrow Water Castle was selected to become part of a unique Royal Mail stamp collection. 

Unfortunately it was also the area where the British Army suffered its greatest single casualty toll in the Troubles when eighteen soldiers were killed when two IRA bombs exploded close to the castle in 1979.

We need to stop and stay a minute

Say a prayer and be quiet

Take in the memories of our poor soldiers

The why’s we will never know the answers

Thirty five years have gone and passed

Others have stood and remembered the blast

The bombs that detonated and sealed the fate

On that day in August in 1979 of 18 dear men

Good soldiers doing their jobs everyone of them

The Troubles carried on for a few more years

More lives taken in vain and lost

The men and their families paid a very high cost

 

An aerial view of the scene of Narrow Water, where 18 British soldiers were killed by a double bomb attack in 1979.

http://www.newrymemoirs.com/about.html