This is an easy, 13 kilometres, walk along the shoreline of Strangford Lough and on tracks and paths in Castle Ward domain. Start in Strangford village and walk up the street past the Lobster Pot Restaurant. At the top of the street on the left is, the aptly named, Squeeze Gut Lane. Follow Squeeze Gut up and over the hill and then the yellow arrows down to the shore of Strangford Lough. Follow the shoreline southwards and enjoy the glorious views.
This will bring you back to the main road. Turn right and after 200 metres, enter the Castle Ward domain. The tarmac path will take you past interesting, pod like, holiday homes, old Castle Ward House, the Game of Thrones courtyard, the Powder House, the Sailing Club but always heading towards Audley’s Castle in the distance.
Audley’s Castle is a three-storey, 15th century, tower house but named after its 16th century owner, John Audley. It is currently enjoying a reincarnation as a star of the film series Game of Thrones. After the castle, retrace your steps along the tarmac road for about 200 metres to find the gate to the bridle path through the Castle Ward domain. At this point, you also have the choice to follow the tarmac road to visit Audley Court Tomb. The tomb is well worth a visit, the road is almost traffic free and it will eventually bring you back into the domain. On the other hand, the bridle path snakes through glorious open parkland and eventually, leads you to the stables and the main house.
Castle Ward is an impressive 18th century house revelling in both Gothic and Classical styles of architectural treatment, both internally and externally. It is well worth taking the tour, not only to view the interior but also to be regaled with tales of aristocratic life, back in the day. It appears that chronic boredom was the enemy of the upper crust. This was thwarted with the consumption of a huge amount of alcohol, lots of dressing up and the gentlemen charging around on horseback to impress the ladies. (Downstairs, of course, the servants had no difficulty in punching in their day). However, in the midst of this idyll and all this frivolity a shadow falls and hence the mystery.
Up until the middle of the 19th century, about 250 people lived in Audley’s Town. The 25 families were tenants on the Castle Ward estate. Both the buildings and the people had long been considered a blot on the landscape. The then lady of the manor, Lady Bangor, decided, presumably, to improve both their prospects, to put the 250 souls on a boat, the Rose, going to the United States and to tumble the cottages into romantic ruins. A record exists of the boat leaving Strangford but there is no record of it ever reaching the states or any other destination. Lady Bangor was known as ‘the Evictor’, a very autocratic lady and the scourge of the tenants on the estate. Did she have a sudden change of personality or was there something much more sinister afoot? In 2012, a BBC program and subsequent website appealed for information from any descendants of the original 250 but, to date, no response.
If you take the tour, you can walk in the footsteps of Lady Bangor through those magnificent rooms and stop at the grand windows and follow her gaze out across the very well manicured landscape, now blot free.
Having considered the darker side of the history of Castle Ward retrace your steps downhill to the lough shore and follow this or the road back to the village of Strangford.
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