After our visit and a lunch break at Bushmills Distillery along the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland, we drove down the road and stopped off at Dunluce Castle. The location of the castle has been fortified for many years, and it was the location of a fort before a castle was built on the site in medieval times. This castle is also used in the television series "Game of Thrones", so you may recognise it from that.
The current castle dates between the 15th and 17th centuries; the family (McQuillans) who owned the castle controlled the sea and region of north Ulster. Some of the stones from Giant's Causeway have been used in the building of the castle.
The castle was taken by the MacDonnell family in the late 1500s, and many Scottish settlers lived there. During the Irish rebellion in 1641, the castle was taken over and the town of Dunluce was burnt to the ground. The castle was completely abandoned in the 1680s, and this is why the town no longer exists.
Dunluce village was a busy 17th century village located just outside of Dunluce Castle. There is no visibility of that village now as it has been covered by fields. The car park for the castle was once the centre of the town (the diamond). Archeological finds from the village are on display in the castle.
The inner ward area of the castle is across a small bridge. The entrance building and some ruins around it that lead to the bridge form the outer ward. A pathway leads underneath the bridge to go down to the sea.
View while crossing the bridge
Columns near southeast tower
Manor House
The castle is built on steep rocky hills on the sea. A rumour about the castle is that the kitchen fell into the sea in the mid-1600s, and the castle was abandoned afterwards. Part of the castle did fall into the sea, but information boards at the castle claimed that it was unlikely that the part of the castle that fell into the sea was the kitchen.
Upper ward
The sea cliffs and caves around and limestone under the waves creates a unique sea environment. Basking sharks or dolphins are meant to be seen if one is lucky, but we did not see any on our visit.
Sea views from castle
After enjoying a look around the ruins, we left the castle and admired the views from the adjoining hillside.
There are a few picturesque points to get a photograph of the castle from. We were fairly lucky with the weather as we did not have rain, and we did not have to contend with large groups of others visiting the castle.
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