Clough Castle is situated in the village
of Clough County Down on the road from Ballynahinch
to Newcastle about three miles from
the village of Dundrum.
The castle is a typical example of an Anglo
Norman motte and bailey castle with a stome tower added at a later
date, the mound which rises to about 25 feet (7.62 Metres) is
surrmounted by a stone tower standing off centre on the mound,
accompanying the tower there may have been a large wooden hall,
excevations in 1950 indicated that this may have burned down,
some time in the 15th century the stone tower was enlarged to
become a tower house
It is an excellent example of an Anglo-Norman earthwork castle
with an added stone tower. A small kidney-shaped bailey lies south
of a large mound, originally separated from it by a 2.1m deep
ditch.[1] On top of the 25ft high motte is a stone tower, enlarged
to become a tower house in the 15th century. It is sited off-centre
as much of the rest of the top of the motte was occupied by a
large hall, which apparently burned down. Around the motte is
a ditch, and on the south-east side a low crescent shaped bailey,
whoich was probably once joined to the motte by a wooden bridge.[3]
Excavations on the summit of the mound in 1950 revealed that
originally (in the late 12th or early 13th century) the top of
the motte was surrounded by a timber palisade within which were
pits for archers. Also found was the foundations of a long rectangular
hall in the north-east half of the area, probably built in the
mid 13th century. Later in the same century a small rectangular
stone keep was built to the south-west, two storeys high and surviving
to this day, having been conserved in 1981-82. In the late Middle
Ages, after what appears to have been a period of disuse, it was
restored and added to, resulting in an L-shaped tower house.[1]
