What is recorded here

Ardree Castle never appeared on any formal survey, yet it held a borough from the twelfth century and still stood when Sir Piers Fitzjames Fitzgerald and his family burned inside its thatched walls in 1593. The precise stones remain unidentified, but the fatal fire proves a fortified house existed there after centuries of decline. Whatever building they called a little castle may have been no grander than a thick-walled farmstead, making the tragedy both smaller and sharper.

The precise location of the castle of Ardree has not been identified. A borough was established at Ardree before the end of the twelfth century by either Thomas de Flanders or Milo de Stanton. It appears to have dwindled in the fourteenth century, although the population did not disappear entirely. Fitzgerald states that in 1593-4 Sir Piers Fitzjames Fitzgerald and his family were burnt to death in his 'little castle' (KD035-032004-) that was but thatched with straw or sedge in his town of Ardree', indicating that there was then at least one fortified house here (FitzGerald 1899-1902, 431).

The castle at Ardree was likely built in the late 12th century by either Thomas de Flanders or Milo de Stanton, who established a borough there. It is remembered as part of the medieval expansion of Norman influence in Scotland during the reign of King William the Lion.

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