Cowd Castle

Cowd Castle (also Choud Castle) is a small late medieval tower house in Ardglass, County Down, Northern Ireland. It stands at the entrance to Ardglass Golf Club, opposite Margaret's Castle and below the later clubhouse complex Ardglass Castle.

Ardglass was the most important port in Ulster in the Middle Ages. Cowd belongs to the ring of 15th and 16th century towers that secured the harbour and the fortified warehouses of the New Works. The name was already unclear two centuries ago. The tower dates to the late 15th or early 16th century. Originally it was connected to the town wall; access was on the wall-walk level, the lower floors were reached via stairs in the thickness of the wall. The door in the west wall on the ground floor is a later addition and cuts through one of these stairs. Landscaping in the late 18th century and minor repairs in the 19th century altered the surroundings when Lord Lecale converted the neighbouring warehouses into Ardglass Castle.