Jordan's Castle

The tower house known as Jordan's Castle is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the townland of Ardglass, in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, at grid ref: J5601 3713.

[3] The entrance is at the bottom of the north-west tower and leads to a spiral stairway to roof level.

This castle is memorable for the gallant defence made by its owner Simon Jordan, who, in the Tyrone rebellion, held it out for three years, till he was relieved by the Lord Deputy Mountjoy, on the 17th of June, 1601, who rewarded him for this service, both by a concordatum from the Queen and his own private bounty.It was also extensively used for get-togethers of the wide circle of Irish Cultural revival artists and writers to whom Bigger was friend and patron.

Following suggestions by Alice Stopford Green and the archivist Henry Egan Kenny, Bigger renamed the tower "Castle Seán' in honour of the two years when Shane O'Neill (Seán Ó Néill) controlled Ardglass, and they believed, re-fortified the tower[5] following his defeat of the MacDonnells at Glentaisie in 1565.

[6] The contents have since been dispersed among the Ulster Museums general collections and the tower is no longer open to the public.