The story of Quoile Castle
Quoile Castle is a tower house, the fortified residence of choice across Ireland from the 15th to the 17th centuries. It was built in the late 1500s on the east bank of the River Quoile, a short way from Downpatrick on the road toward Strangford. It has been suggested the builder was Captain Richard West, and the West family held and lived in the castle into the 1700s.
The plan is simple and defensive: a square tower three storeys high, built of split-stone rubble with sandstone dressings. The two ground-floor chambers were stone vaulted and pierced with small gun-loops, straight stairs ran up through the wall thickness, both lower floors had fireplaces, and a murder-hole over the north-east doorway let defenders drop missiles on anyone forcing the entrance. It was never meant to hold off an army, only a local raiding party.
The castle was lived in until the 18th century, then abandoned, and over time the south angle of the building collapsed. That failure left the now-famous open cross-section through the vaults and floors. The west wall has since been partly reconstructed. In 1986 seven silver sixpences from the reign of Elizabeth I were found at the site, a small confirmation of its Tudor-era life.
Today Quoile Castle is a State Care historic monument, looked after by the Department for Communities and standing in the grounds of the Quoile Countryside Centre.