Guide to Irish Castles, Manors, and Country Houses

of THE PROVINCE OF ULSTER for:

-- Co. ANTRIM --

Notes: (1) -- M. Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses, London, 1988.

Notes: (2) -- Carrickfergus Castle: Situated north of Belfast on the shores of Belfast Lough, Carrickfergus Castle is magnificently sited on a stark outcrop of dark basalt. Built by John de Courcy after his 1177 invasion of Ulster, Carrickfergus Castle has had a turbulent and violent history spanning over 800 years. The site of Carrickfergus became the main Norman stronghold in the north of Ireland and the seat of power of the Earls of Ulster. Besieged and attacked by in turn the Scots, English and the French, the impressive and forbidding structure has stood firm. Carrickfergus Castle played an important military role until 1928 and remains one of the best preserved medieval structures in the whole of Ireland.

Notes: (3) -- Dunluce Castle: This late-medieval and 17th-century castle is dramatically sited, on a headland dropping sheer into the sea on the north Antrim Coast. It creates an exciting image of danger and adventure backed up by its history. It was first documented in McQuillan hands, in 1513, and later became the stronghold of the McDonnells, Earls of Antrim and Lords of the Isles. During the McDonnell ownership it was taken by Somhairle Buidhe (Sorley Boy) MacDonnell, whose brother had married the daughter of McQuillan. Besieged and badly damaged by Sir John Perrott, the Lord Deputy, in 1584, it was subsequently recaptured Sorley Boy who, submitting to Queen Elizabeth in 1586, was made Constable of the Castle. This did not stop him from aiding the few survivors of the Girona, an Armada galleass that sank off nearby Lacada point, and salvaging cannon from the Girona for use at Dunluce. Sorley Boy undertook new building at Dunluce, particularly the Italian-style loggia, prior to his death in 1589. His sons, James and Randal, added to the fortifications, probably building the Scottish-style gatehouse around 1600. Randal, who became Viscount Dunluce, and 1st Earl of Antrim, founded a town, west of the castle, in 1620 and brought settlers from Scotland to live there. In 1635 the 2nd Earl, also Randal, married Catherine Manners, widow of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The Earl built the Manor House, with its bay windows, for her and a new kitchen court on the rock. Despite this, the Duchess never liked Dunluce and when part of the kitchen court fell into the sea, during a storm in 1639, she insisted that the family abandon the castle and build a house inland. The 17th-century mainland court contains domestic buildings leading downhill to the narrow crossing to the rock, formerly protected by a drawbridge to the Gatehouse. The buildings on the rock are almost all of 16th/early-17th century date. Slight earthworks, visible to the west of the castle, are remains of a formal garden and part of the long-deserted town, whose ruined church stands in the graveyard south of the castle, separated from it by the modern Coast Rd.

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