History of Castle Ward

Lucrative industry, 1700–1750

The landholding expanded throughout the seventeenth century, with purchases from other English settlers and confiscated estates. By the time eight-year-old Michael Ward inherited Castle Ward in 1691, he was one of the largest landowners in the region.

Described as ‘the poor minor of Castle Ward’ after his father was killed in a duel, Michael Ward (1683–1759) fully overcame this difficult start. He became a formidable character, following a legal career that led to appointment as a Judge of the King’s Bench in 1727.

Judge Michael developed business interests in the linen trade, shipping and salt production. Other ventures were not so successful. Shortly before the financial crash caused by its collapse, he invested in the South Sea Company, which traded enslaved people and goods with Spain’s South American and Caribbean colonies. Expected profits from an expedition to find a Northwest Passage for trading ships in 1744 also came to nothing.

Fashionable living, indoors and out

Happiness, full coffers and a good deal more land had come Michael Ward’s way in 1710 when he married Anne Hamilton of Bangor (1690/1–1760), an heiress from one of County Down’s major families. ‘Madam,’ he wrote some time before their marriage, ‘I find 'tis impossible for me to live without you, I can enjoy nothing with satisfaction in your absence...’

The couple embarked upon an extended programme of improvements at Castle Ward. A site was chosen for a new house, in an elevated position overlooking the seventeenth-century gardens and with views of the more distant landscape.

This more convenient and commodious home would have had plenty of rooms to decorate and fill with fashionable furnishings. In the summer of 1720, for example, Anne Hamilton was commissioning tapestries for it. An important collection of early eighteenth-century Chinese ceramics which can be seen at Castle Ward today may well have been bought to enliven the new house.

Over the next 25 years, Michael and Anne turned their attention to the landscape. They created an expansive, formal setting for the house, beyond which lay woodland belts and groves threaded through with ‘wilderness’ walks.

The focal point of this new design was an enormous, reflective sheet of water, now known as Temple Water. Over 450 metres long, it directs the viewer’s gaze towards the picturesque ruin of Audley’s Castle, a fifteenth-century tower house. The sheer scale of it makes Michael Ward’s message clear: the Wards had most definitely ‘arrived.’

‘By much the finest thing I have seen in Ireland’: the later eighteenth century

The scale of the Wards’ ambitions continued with the next generation. Despite the fact that his father’s house was only 50 years old, Bernard Ward (1719–81) and his wife, Lady Ann Bligh (1718–89), chose to build again. Constructed in the 1760s, the new building was specifically placed to make the most of spectacular views across Strangford Lough.  

This final incarnation of Castle Ward is famous for its surprising dual nature. The traditional, classical mode of the entrance facade exudes an atmosphere of gravitas and stability. Walking round to the ‘garden front,’ however, the visitor finds what would have been a thoroughly modern building in a Romantic, neo-Gothic style. What makes the house all the more remarkable is that the classical/Gothic contrast continues inside, dividing the house in half. Despite much speculation, the architect remains unknown.

Extensive works were undertaken in the demesne in the newly fashionable, naturalistic style, in which the house was to appear as if in untouched, pastoral countryside. Carefully constructed views opened up across expansive lawns, parkland and ever more woodland plantations.

Bernard and Ann may in fact have begun to embellish the landscape in the 1750s, before inheriting the estate. By 1755, a banqueting house in the form of a classical temple had been built overlooking Michael Ward’s great canal, with views across Strangford Lough. Known as Lady Ann’s Temple, it may have been her personal project. 

Contemporary visitors were suitably impressed by the transformation of Castle Ward and its setting. Sir James Caldwell’s verdict on a visit in 1772 was that it was ‘much the finest thing I have seen in Ireland.’ Lady Ann herself thought it ‘a delightful place,’ the most pleasant she knew.

Decline and renewal

Rising social standing came with the Wards’ steadily increasing affluence and political influence. Shortly before his death, Bernard Ward became the 1st Viscount Bangor. Although his son Nicholas (1750–1827) served as an MP in the 1770s, when he inherited in 1781 his mental instability led to the placing of his estate in chancery. Castle Ward entered a long period of decline.

Improvements to the dilapidated state of the house and renewed attention to the landscape setting took place throughout the mid-nineteenth century. During the 4th Viscount’s minority, his mother and stepfather took a particularly autocratic approach to estate management. Most of the inhabitants of the village of Audleystown, predominantly Catholic and already decimated by the effects of the Irish Famine, were removed and sent to America. At the edge of Castle Ward’s park, the site of the village was subsumed under new woodland plantations.

From family home to public asset: the twentieth century

Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Land Acts, inheritance tax, and the social and economic consequences of two world wars had considerable impact. Like many Irish landed families, the Wards struggled to continue their traditional way of life. In 1953 the National Trust purchased Castle Ward and its demesne with a grant from the Ulster Land Fund. Since then, generations of visitors have been able to enjoy the Wards’ ‘delightful place.’

Further reading

• Casement, Anne. 2024. Michael Ward of Castle Ward: entrepreneur extraordinaire. Familia – Ulster Genealogical Review 40