Glenarm Castle, Glenarm, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is the ancestral home of the Earls of Antrim. There has been a castle at Glenarm since the 13th century, and it is at the heart of one of Northern Ireland’s oldest estates.
The present castle was built by Sir Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, in 1636. It is currently owned by Randal, Viscount Dunluce, the son of Alexander McDonnell, 9th Earl of Antrim. In 1642 an invading Scots army burnt this castle, and thereafter the family lived first at Dunluce, and then at the nearby house of Ballymagarry, leaving Glenarm a ruin. A visitor in 1740 said 'the walls seem to be entire, and for the most part sound. The Castle was rebuilt in 1756 by the 5th Earl of Antrim. |
13th Century
There has been a castle at Glenarm since the days of John Bisset, who was expelled from Scotland in 1242 for murdering a rival during a tournament. He promised to do penance by going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but instead he acquired lands between Larne and Ballycastle from Hugh de Lacy, the Earl of Ulster. Bisset made Glenarm his capital, and by 1260 there was a castle, which stood at the centre of the present village, with a kitchen garden, an orchard and a mill, as well as woods and meadows. The last MacEoin Bisset was killed fighting the O'Donnells in 1522. Their lands were then seized by the MacDonnells, their former partners, who occupied the Bisset’s castle until they built the new one.
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Interesting Facts......
There was a rule that the wife of the earl had to have babies until they had a boy. The boy had to be called: Randal if his father was Alexander, Alexander if his father was Randal.