The castle was originally built upon lands acquired by
Raymond FitzGerald, who died in the late 1100s. The
FitzGeralds were the most powerful
Norman-Irish aristocratic dynasty in
medieval Ireland until the 1500s. Gorteens was included in the
Down Survey of Ireland in 1656 as being in the Baronys of Ida, Igrim or Ibercon and in the Parish of Rathpatricke. John FitzGerald, a Catholic, is recorded as being the last FitzGerald holder of Gorteens. The duellist
George Robert FitzGerald was descended from this family. By 1670, the castle at Gorteens was reputedly in the hands of Samuel Skrimsheire or Skrimshaw, a Protestant. In 1700, it was owned by members of the
Forstall family. ==References==