Ardee House, and its sylvan and ornamented grounds, immediately behind the west side of Castle Street, produce warmth and amenity of aspect. But neither the contour of the surrounding flat country, nor the sluggish course of the muddy and prosaic Dee, are favourable to the composition of a mixedly town and country landscape. Though the town contains a few good houses, it consists, for the most part of miserable cabins. The chief public buildings are the parish church, a plain though ancient structure; the Roman Catholic chapel, a bulky, unfinished edifice; and the court-house and bridewell, a quondam castle, strong, built in the 13th century by Roger de Pipard, and long the chief residence of his descen¬dants. The Bridewell section of the castle contains 2 day-rooms, 6 cells, and 2 small yards; and is kept remarkably clean, orderly, and subordinate to the objects of discipline and reform.

A large artificial mount, called Castle Guard, at the south entrance of the town, is a remarkable and curious object. It is encompassed by a double ditch and vallum; is approached and ascended by a raised path across the ditch and up the side; and has on its summit the vestiges of apparently an octangular tower, surrounded by a wall or rampart. Wright, who describes it in the Louthiana, says, 'The perpendic­ular height of the mount, from the bed of its foundation, is nearly 90 feet, and the depth of the main trench betwixt 30 and 40; the circumference at the top is not less than 140, and round the foundation, upwards of 600 feet.' The mount appears to have been designed for both residence and defence; and bears marks of having been occupied at different times by distinct races of people.