Dunluce Castle Ruins
Portrush, Co Antrim
Dunluce Castle Ruins, situated on the coastline a short distance east of Portrush town.
Standing on a detached basaltic rock some distance above the sea and seperated from the mainland by a deep chasm around 20ft wide. It was built in the early 14th century, on the site of a ancient Irish fortress. The orignal layout had five circular towers joined by a strong curtain wall, with a platform inside and openings in the battlements for the use of archers. Only two of the full towers and portions of another two remain. The castle did not contain a Keep as, for example, Carrickfergus Castle. It's impregnable position on an isolated rock made a Keep unnecessary. For many centuries the castle was held by the De Mandevillse, until, under their Irish name Mac Uillins ( ie., Sons of Hugh), they were expelled after 1560 by the McDonnells, who had been driven from Scotland. The McDonnells reconstructed almost the whole castle inside the five circular towers, adding a banqueting hall which still remains. The buildings south of the drawbridge, on the mainland, were constructed probably to take the place of the kitchen which fell over the cliff into the sea on a stormy night, carrying with it eight servants. The celebrated Sorley Boye McDonnell and the English struggled for the possession of the castle, which was eventually abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin after the restoration of Charles ll. The Earl of Antrim, the lineal of the McDonnells, handed over the ruin to the Northern Ireland Government to be preserved as a National Monument.
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