Dunluce

Dunluce Castle crowns a rocky headland on the north coast of Antrim, separated from the mainland by a steep chasm. Its walls overlook the sea routes between Ireland and Scotland. The MacDonnells took the castle from the MacQuillans in the sixteenth century and remodelled it as a seat of their power in the Route.

Around 1608 Randal MacDonnell began to develop a town beside the castle, laying out streets and houses for a settlement linked to his estate. The rising of 1641 brought violence to Dunluce: armed men came to the castle, which held out, while the town suffered damage. The abandoned streets beside the stronghold preserve the outline of a short-lived attempt to create a new town on this exposed coast.