Dunluce Castle's Ponytailed Phantom

A-Z Challenge 2012 - D

Dunluce Castle’s Ponytailed Phantom

Dunluce Castle, a ruined medieval castle in Northern Ireland, sits on a basalt outcrop in County Antrim. This engraving shows it in a dramatic light.

Dunluce Castle (1848 Engraving)

The first castle on the site was built by the MacQuillans in the 14^th century. However the castle is firmly linked to the MacDonnells who occupied it in the 16^th. It was Sorley Boy MacDonnell who took the castle by force after the Battle of Orla in 1565. In 1584 Sir John Perrot, Queen Elizabeth I’s Lord Deputy of Ireland led an army which battered the castle into submission, He evicted Sorley Boy and installed Peter Carey as constable of the castle.

The Queen was not amused and granted the castle back to Sorley Boy in 1586. Sorley Boy promptly hanged Carey from the south-east tower’s ramparts. Carey’s ghost sporting a ponytail and clad in a purple cloak has wandered the tower ever since.

Sorley Boy’s son Randal; was made 1^st Earl of Antrim by King James I. But in 1639 it was the second Earl and his Countess who were there when part of the castle and the kitchens fell into the sea; only one boy in the corner of the kitchen surviving. Subsequent to the impoverishment of the MacDonnells after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 the condition of the castle deteriorated and has remained in ruins ever since.

Dunluce Castle 2005

Given by the Earl of Antrim to the Northern Ireland Government in 1928 Dunluce Castle has become a National Monument under the care of the Department of the Environment.

Hilary’s Castle for C is Croft Castle

Attribution

• 1848 Engraving of Dunluce Castle, County of Antrim, by William Miller after John Thomson of Duddingstone. For the Members of the Royal Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Scotland.
• Dunluce Castle 2005 by Kenneth Allen - Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 2.0
• Video - Irish Rovers, Dunluce Castle