These romantic ruins, perched dramatically on the edge of a rocky headland, are a testimony to this region’s turbulent past. During the Middle Ages, the castle was a prized fortification.
But on a stormy night in 1639, dinner was interrupted as half of the kitchen fell into the sea, taking the servants with it. That was the last straw for the lady of the castle.
The countess of Antrim packed up and moved inland, and the castle began its slow submission to the forces of nature.
While it’s one of the largest castles in Northern Ireland and its beautifully situated, there’s precious little left to see among Dunluce’s broken walls.
Look for distinctively hexagonal stones embedded in the castle walls, plucked straight from the unique pillars of rock making up the nearby Giant’s Causeway.
There were primitive fortifications here hundreds of years before the castle was built. But the 16th century saw the biggest expansion of the castle, financed by treasure salvaged from a shipwreck.
In 1588, the Spanish Armada’s Girona – overloaded with sailors and the valuables of three abandoned sister ships – sank on her way home after the aborted mission against England.
More than 1,300 drowned, and only five survivors washed ashore. The shipwreck was more fully excavated in 1967, and a bounty of goldens odds and silver ends would up in Belfast’s Ulster Museum.
I’ll put the rest of my videos and pictures in a final dump. It was a beautiful day (does not happen all that often) that made this picturesque place that much more extraordinary!
