Castle Ward is an 18th-century

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

property located near the village of Strangford, in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, in the

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

of the same name. It overlooks Strangford Lough and is 7 miles from

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Down Cathedral, Its cathedral is sai ...

and 1.5 miles from Strangford. Castle Ward is open to the public and includes of landscaped gardens, a fortified tower house, Victorian laundry, theatre, restaurant, shop, saw mill and a working corn mill. It has a shore on Strangford Lough. From 1985 to 2010 it has also hosted Castleward Opera, an annual summer

opera festival This is an inclusive list of opera festivals and summer opera seasons, and music festivals which have opera productions. This list may have some overlap with Early music festivals, list of early music festivals. Opera is part of the Western clas ...

Features

Castle Ward is known for its dual architecture, representing the differing tastes of Bernard Ward, 1st Viscount Bangor and his wife, Lady Ann Bligh. While the entrance side of the building is in a classical Palladian style with columns supporting a triangular

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

, the opposite side is Georgian Gothic with pointed windows, battlements and

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s. This difference in style continues throughout the interior of the house with the divide down the centre. There is a tower house in the estate's farmyard, built as a defensive structure during 1610 by Nicholas Ward.

History

The north end of Strangford Manor was originally called ''Carrick na Sheannagh'' () and owned by the Earls of Kildare. In 1570, it was bought by Bernard Ward, father of Sir Robert Ward, Surveyor-General of Ireland, and renamed Castle Ward. The 850 acre walled demesne also dates from the 16th century. The Ward family built a succession of homes in their estate; Old Castle Ward, built about 1590 near to Strangford Lough, still survives, but a mansion built about 1720 by Judge Michael Ward was demolished about 1850, although some of the associated landscaping remains. The architect of the current building, built during the early 1760s for Michael Ward's son, Bernard Ward, is unknown, although he may have come from the

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

area, with which the Ward family had associations. It may have been James Bridges, who practised in Bristol between 1757 and 1763 and whose work there has some similarity to Castle Ward. Bernard Ward was elevated to the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

as the 1st

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Bangor in May 1770. In January 1781, Lord Bangor was further advanced in the Peerage of Ireland when he was created the 1st Viscount Bangor. The property was inherited in May 1781, under a settlement made in 1748, by the 1st Viscount's eldest son and

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

, Nicholas Ward, 2nd Viscount Bangor, who was clearly insane. When his younger brother,

Edward Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...

, died in 1812, leaving a young son, the youngest brother

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

took the opportunity to relocate the insane Lord Bangor into a smaller house in

and strip Castle Ward of everything valuable. The house stood empty until the death of the 2nd Viscount in September 1827, when it was inherited by Edward's son, also named Edward, now the 3rd Viscount. He and his descendants restored the building and its furnishings, but on the death of Maxwell Ward, 6th Viscount Bangor in 1950 the house and estate were given in lieu of death duties to the Government of Northern Ireland, who presented the house and its gardens to the National Trust in 1952. On 10 February 1973, Leonard O'Hanlon (age 23) and Vivienne Fitzsimmons (age 17), both members of the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

, were killed when the bomb they planted exploded prematurely in the grounds of Castle Ward estate.

Gallery

File:Castle Ward Castle, June 2011 (01).JPG, Old Castle Ward File:Castle ward Dining room.JPG, The dining room. File:Castle Ward House, June 2011 (07).JPG, Castle Ward Gothic (north-east) façade, June 2011. Image:Castle Ward Walled Garden, June 2011 (02).JPG, Walled Garden, June 2011. File:Grand hallway to front entrance.JPG, Grand hallway to front entrance.

In popular culture

Castle Ward was used as a filming location for Winterfell in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

television series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

''.

References

External links