Carrickfergus Castle

Listen first. Water slaps against black rock just below the walls, and gulls call over the lough. The air tastes of salt. Under your feet, the ground is uneven stone, worn smooth by centuries of boots. Ahead of you, a square grey keep rises above the curtain walls. It has stood at the edge of this water for more than eight hundred years.

You are standing on the northern shore of Belfast Lough, a long sea inlet that leads inland towards Belfast. The castle sits on a rocky outcrop that pushes out into the water. That position was the whole point. The sea protected the castle on three sides, and ships could supply it directly. Whoever held this rock could watch every vessel moving up and down the lough.

The story begins in the late twelfth century. In 1177, an Anglo-Norman knight called John de Courcy marched north into Ulster with a small force. The Anglo-Normans were the descendants of the Normans who had conquered England a century earlier. De Courcy carved out a lordship for himself here, and he began this castle as his stronghold. The oldest parts you can see, the inner ward and the great keep, belong to that early phase.

De Courcy did not keep his prize for long. He fell out with the English Crown, and the lordship passed to another Anglo-Norman family, the de Lacys. Then, in 1210, King John of England came to Ireland in person. He besieged the castle and took it. From that point, this became a royal castle, a direct outpost of English power on the Irish coast.

Now look at the walls around you. The castle grew in rings, like layers added over time. The inner ward around the keep came first. A middle ward and then an outer ward were added later, pushing the defences towards the landward side. The gatehouse, with its two rounded towers, came in the thirteenth century. As you walk through the gate, look up. The openings above your head are often called murder holes. Defenders could drop stones or shoot at anyone trapped below.

The great keep is the heart of the place. Its walls are very thick, built from rough local stone. Inside, the rooms stack on top of each other, and narrow windows let in thin lines of light. The main hall sat high up, away from the dangers of the ground floor. Climbing the stairs, you feel how cold and dim life here could be — even for the most powerful people in the castle.

The hardest test came in the early fourteenth century. Edward Bruce, brother of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce, invaded Ireland in 1315. His army laid siege to Carrickfergus. The garrison held out for many months. Medieval accounts claim the defenders became so hungry that they ate leather from their equipment. One darker tale says they even ate Scottish prisoners... but that story should be treated as grim legend, not proven fact. In the end, the starving garrison surrendered.

Here is something many visitors miss. The castle was not only medieval. It stayed in military use for centuries, long after knights and crossbows had gone. As cannons became more important, the walls were changed to hold guns. Look along the battlements and you will see old cannons pointing out over the water. The castle served as a garrison, an armoury and, at times, a prison. Soldiers were based here until the early twentieth century.

The late seventeenth century brought another turning point. In 1689, during the war between King James the Second and William of Orange, Williamite forces besieged the castle and captured it. The next year, in 1690, William himself landed here at Carrickfergus harbour. He then marched south, and that campaign led to the Battle of the Boyne. Down by the harbour, close to the castle, a statue marks his arrival.

A second surprise comes from 1760. During a war between Britain and France, a French naval force under a commander named François Thurot landed nearby. The small garrison inside could not hold out, and the French captured the castle for a short time. They soon left, and Thurot was killed at sea not long afterwards. It is a strange thought — a French flag, however briefly, above this Norman tower in Ulster.

The waters in front of you saw action too. In 1778, during the American War of Independence, the American naval captain John Paul Jones fought a British warship called HMS Drake just off this coast. Jones won the fight and captured the ship. Standing on the walls and looking out across the lough, you can picture the smoke and the sails on the grey water.

Today the castle is cared for by the state as a historic monument. Walk slowly through each ward and notice how the stonework changes. Some sections are rough and irregular. Others are neater, with later repairs and gun openings cut into older walls. The castle does not show a single moment in time. It shows eight centuries of people adapting the same rock to new kinds of war.

Before you leave, walk out to a spot where you can see both the keep and the water. Notice the colour of the stone against the sky, and the sound of the waves on the rocks below. Behind you is a small modern town. In front of you is the same lough that de Courcy's ships once crossed. As you walk away, look back once more — the keep is still watching the water, as it always has.