Narrow Water Castle

Warrenpoint, Ireland

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Narrow Water Castle near Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland is a 16th-century tower house and bawn built by the Magennis family around the 1560s on the site of an earlier 13th-century Norman keep established by Hugh de Lacy to guard river access to Newry.

The castle, built with thick stone walls and defensive features like narrow windows and a fortified entrance, was a stronghold through many conflicts, including the Irish Rebellion of 1641 when it changed hands several times. In the 1670s it was sold to the Hall family, who expanded the estate and eventually built a Victorian-era mansion nearby in the 1830s, while the original tower house became a state care monument from 1956 onward.

The castle has witnessed turmoil, including a tragic ambush during The Troubles in 1979 in which 18 British soldiers were killed nearby. Though the castle itself is private and not open to the public, it stands as a significant historical and architectural landmark reflecting centuries of military and local history in the Warrenpoint area.