Remains of 300-year-old building complex unearthed by chance on country estate
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Undocumented remains of a 300-year-old complex of buildings have been discovered by chance during routine drainage work on a country house estate. The foundations of a courtyard and surrounding buildings were unearthed in an area of thick vegetation on the grounds of Castle Ward in Co Down during the installation of a drain filtration system.
The discovery at the National Trust property has taken archaeologists completely by surprise, as there is no record of the structures on any of the estate’s historical maps or documents. It was found as a trench was being dug to bring a pipe from the existing buildings at Castle Ward down to a reed bed.
Archaeologists were on site monitoring the work at the time just in case anything of significance was found. But they never expected what was revealed after the first few red bricks were uncovered. As the topsoil was stripped back further, the remnants of a collection of buildings was exposed for the first time in three centuries.
Around a central, cobbled courtyard, there were a series of buildings, some with tiled and flagged floors. A sink, fireplace, cellar and network of stone-lined drains have all been identified. Several artefacts have also been found, including pottery, glass bottles, ceramics and discarded, butchered, animal bones.
Construction on the existing country mansion at Castle Ward began in the 1760s but there was an original house predating that, which was built in the early part of the 18th Century. Experts believe the newly discovered remains date back to the late 1600s or early 1700s and may have been a domestic and farm-related complex of buildings utilised by the first Castle Ward house.
