Castle (in Ruins) — Bigwood

Situated atop natural hillock with good views in all directions. Foyran church (WM001-042----) located 1km to ENE and wayside cross (WM001-035----) located 73m to WNW. No castle depicted in this townland on the 1657 Down Survey maps (NLI, MS 723-4). Poorly preserved castle ruins standing on top of gravel ridge. The fragmentary remains of the castle along with the overgrown nature of the site makes examination and interpretation of the site very difficult. All that remains are the poorly preserved fragment of a mortared wall built against the face of a low natural ‘cliff’ on the S side of a small, steep sided flat topped oval-shaped hillock ( dims. 29m N-S x 46m E-W). A modern roadway runs along the foot of the hill from NE-N-NNW and the side of the hill has been quarried into along here. There are faint remains of an earthen bank running along the upper edge of the hill from E to NE and from NNW-NW. The castle wall (T 0.9m) only rises c. 50cms above the edge of the hill on the S and there is a small pile of stones there also, it is not possible to make out the plan of the castle on the surface of the hill. There are traces of a low bank running N-S to the NE of centre; and a small pile of stones just N of centre. A relatively level area just S of the hill outside the surviving wall and outlined elsewhere by relatively modern field walls and the remains of a partly ruined farmyard could have been an enclosure (dims. 21m N-S x 22m E-W) or bawn associated with the castle. A modern field fence runs along the foot of the hill on the W. There is an extensive gravel quarry on both sides of the roadway NE of the site. Two fine dressed stone corbels from the medieval castle have been re-used on the top of the gatepost leading into the farmyard to the SE of castle wall. Area to the N & NW of the castle hill is now part of a quarry visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011. The farmyard described above located to the S and SE of the castle appears to have been levelled and are not visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs. Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 November 2016