Old Castle Archdale, Irvinestown

These are the remains of a T-shaped house and bawn built for the English planter, John Archdale, on land granted in 1612. Captured in 1641, the castle was repaired but finally burned and abandoned in 1689. Little survives of the bawn except part of the south wall with its wall-walk and a semi-circular-headed gate. Above this on the outside is a Latin inscription recording the construction by John Archdale in 1615. The house occupies the north end of the bawn, above a steep slope. It is very fragmentary and heavily restored but probably had two storeys with attics. Parts of the east gable and south wall survive, but the main fragment is the projecting north tower, three storeys high, which held a wooden stair, defended with gun-loops and lit by square-headed, three-light windows at a higher level. The castle is generally English in design, but there are signs of Scottish influence in the details of the bawn gateway.

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