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| Aerial view of Dunluce Castle |
Thought by many to be the most romantic and picturesque of
Irish castles, the ruins of medieval Dunluce Castle sit atop
a rocky outcrop overlooking the Irish Sea on
the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland.
It is joined to the mainland by an arched
walkway, or bridge, over a 20-foot chasm.
The 17th century mainland
courtyard, containing domestic buildings, leads downhill to a narrow
crossing to the rock, formerly protected by a drawbridge to the gatehouse. The
buildings on the rock are from the16th and 17th century.
The earliest mention of Dunluce Castle is in the
fourteenth century, and it is believed to have been built by Richard
de Burgh on the site of an old fortress.
It was later occupied by the McQuillans
around 1513.
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| Dunluce Castle |
Forty years later, Sorley
Boy McDonnell, a Scottish chieftain who controlled the northeastern coast
of Ireland, claimed the castle for the McDonnell clan. But in 1584 Queen Elizabeth
I ordered Sir John
Perrott to take the castle for England.
Sorley Boy fled but was able to retake the castle with help from inside.
It is he who mounted the four cannons on the gatehouses
obtained from the Spanish
galleass Girona which foundered
on Lacada Point near the Giant’s Causeway in 1588. Funds obtained from selling the recovered cargo
from the ship was used by Sorley Boy’s son to modernize the castle.
McDonnell’s
son, Randal, is credited with restoring the castle and building a lavish
manor inside the castle walls. Randal
married the widow Lady
Katherine Manners and the Earl and Countess of
Antrim set about appointing the castle with the finest of decorations. An
inventory of the period shows fine tapestries and curtains, including one
set that had belonged to Cardinal
Wolsey of Hampton Court.
The inventory
lists over sixty elaborately upholstered chairs, a library of books, saddles
worked with gold and silver, fine cabinets, and priests’ vestments. The Countess is also credited with
establishing St.
Cuthbert’s Church near
the castle.
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| Dunluce Castle |
The
village which grew up around the castle around 1608 was a thriving merchant
town as evidenced by the headstones in St. Cuthbert’s
graveyard. Currently there is an archaeological
project being conducted to unearth the village ruins destroyed in the 1641
rebellion when it was besieged by the Irish army.
Most of the Scottish residents escaped to Scotland before
the village was burned to the ground. The village was revolutionary for its age as
it boasted indoor toilets and cobblestone streets laid out in a grid. These
21 videos, Discovery of a Lost Town: Dunluce, (1 hour, 8 minutes total) chronicle
that dig.
During the 1641 rebellion, the Earl was captured by Scottish General Robert Monro.
After his release he lived in Dunluce Castle until his death in 1683. After the Battle of the
Boyne in 1690, Dunluce was abandoned and Ballymagarry became the principal residence
of the McDonnell clan until 1745.
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| Diagram of Dunluce at its peak |
The castle was given to the Northern Ireland government
in 1928 to be preserved as a National Monument.
Many legends surround Dunluce Castle…some true, some just
myth. Below the castle is Mermaid’s
Cave where legend says a lost soldier was dragged to the depths by a
beautiful mermaid. Other stories tell of
smugglers and Spanish treasure hidden in the depths of the cave.
One of the most famous stories is purported to have occurred
during a storm in 1639 when the kitchen, along with seven servants, fell into
the sea.
And just for fun…here are 50 things you probably never knew about Dunluce Castle. (Note: I guess #1 is still up for debate!)
The Castle in Popular Culture
The castle is thought to be the
inspiration for Cair
Paravel in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. In 1973 the castle appeared on the inner
gatefold of the multi-million selling Led
Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy. The castle
appeared as Snakehead’s hideout, called Ravens Keep, in the 2003 Jackie Chan movie The Medallion.
Visiting
Dunluce Castle
Audio/visual guides are available
on site that allow visitors to view animations of the castle’s structures
rebuilt before their eyes to create an engaging and immersive visitor
experience. However there are lots of information boards
throughout the ruins to keep visitors informed. A video is also available in
the discovery room.
An app
for iphone and android devices has been developed for Dunluce Castle. This is
now available, free of charge, from the App Store and Google Play.
To reach the castle, there
is a short, casual walk from the carpark across a wooden bridge to the
castle. The bridge spans the chasm which
separates the castle from the mainland. There
is also a walk down steps to the cave underneath the castle.
For some beautiful
scenery, try this 360
tour from the bridge to the castle.
These videos provide a good background for visiting
Dunluce Castle:
Rick Steves’ Dunluce Castle, Northern
Ireland: Romantic Ruins (1:54)
Dunluce
Castle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland (1:05) shows the stairs to the cave.
Here you can print off your own Guide
Card to Dunluce Castle for the most complete information on the ruins.
