Dunluce Castle

Listen first. Below the bridge, the sea pulls back through a cave in the rock and then rushes in again, with a deep, hollow boom. The wind comes straight off the North Atlantic and carries salt. Under your feet, the path is damp and grey, and the grass along its edges is short and tough. Ahead of you, broken walls stand on the very edge of a cliff, as if the land simply ran out and the castle kept going.

This is Dunluce Castle, on the north coast of County Antrim, a short drive from Coleraine. It sits on a headland of black basalt between the seaside towns of Portrush and Bushmills. Basalt is volcanic rock, the same dark stone that forms the Giant's Causeway further along this shore. Look at the gap between the mainland and the castle rock. In the past, that drop was the castle's best defence. Today a bridge crosses it, but the old builders relied on that chasm to keep enemies out.

The oldest parts of the stonework date back to the medieval period. Over the following centuries, owner after owner rebuilt, extended and repaired it. That is why the ruins look like a collection of different buildings rather than one single design. Rounded towers stand beside square walls. Rough early masonry sits next to neater, later work. You are not looking at one castle. You are looking at several castles, layered on top of each other on the same rock.

For a long period, this stretch of coast belonged to the MacQuillan family, a powerful local lordship. In the sixteenth century, control passed to the MacDonnells, a Scottish clan with deep roots in the islands and western Highlands. Scotland is only a short sea crossing from here. On a clear day, you can sometimes see Scottish islands and headlands on the horizon. For the MacDonnells, this sea was not a barrier. It was a road that linked their lands on both sides of the water.

The best-known MacDonnell leader was Sorley Boy MacDonnell. His name comes from the Irish for Charles the Yellow, probably a reference to his fair hair. He held these lands through years of conflict with English forces, who wanted firm control over Ulster. Dunluce changed hands more than once during those struggles. Sorley Boy lost the castle, won it back, and eventually came to terms with the English Crown. His family stayed here and later became the Earls of Antrim.

Now for a story that links this cliff to one of the most famous events in European history. In 1588, the Spanish Armada, a huge invasion fleet sent against England, was defeated and scattered. Many ships tried to sail home around the north of Scotland and Ireland. One of them, a galleass called the Girona, was wrecked on rocks near the Giant's Causeway in October 1588. Hundreds of men drowned. It was one of the worst losses of the whole Armada.

The MacDonnells are said to have recovered goods from the wreck, and there is a long tradition that cannon from the Girona were mounted at Dunluce. Sorley Boy may have used the proceeds to help pay for repairs to the castle. Treat these details as tradition rather than firm record. What is certain is the wreck itself. Divers recovered gold, jewellery and other objects from the Girona in the twentieth century, and many of those finds are now in the Ulster Museum in Belfast.

In the early seventeenth century, Dunluce changed again. The family built more comfortable living quarters on the mainland side, including a large manor house with big windows. Big windows are a sign of confidence. A fortress built for war needs small openings. A house built for comfort wants light. Walk through these later buildings and you can see that shift clearly. The castle was slowly turning from a stronghold into a home for an aristocratic family.

Here is something many visitors miss. Dunluce was not only a castle. Beside it stood a small town, built around the early seventeenth century, during the period when Scottish and English settlers were moving into Ulster. For a long time, almost nothing of this town was visible. Then archaeologists excavated the fields beside the castle and found the remains of streets, houses and merchant buildings. The grassy ground you see near the entrance once held a busy little community.

Now the most famous story of all. According to a popular tale, one stormy night part of the castle kitchen collapsed into the sea. Some versions say a feast was being prepared, and that the cooks fell with the kitchen, while only a kitchen boy survived in one corner. Locals also say that the Earl's wife refused to live at Dunluce ever again. Historians are cautious about the details. But the story fits the look of this place, where walls stop suddenly at the edge of the drop.

Legends gather easily on a site like this. One tale tells of a young woman called Maeve Roe, who was locked in a tower after refusing to marry the man her father chose. Some say her ghost still walks there. There is also a tradition that the writer C. S. Lewis, who grew up in Belfast, had this castle in mind when he imagined Cair Paravel, the seaside castle in his Narnia books. Nobody can prove it, but the image works.

In the later seventeenth century, the family moved away, and the castle was slowly abandoned. Stone was taken for other buildings. Roofs fell in. Wind and rain did the rest. Today the ruins are cared for by the state, and a visitor centre stands near the entrance. Television brought a new audience too. Dunluce appeared in the series Game of Thrones, where it was used as the base for the Greyjoy castle of Pyke, with digital effects adding extra towers and bridges.

Before you leave, walk to a place where you can see the castle and the sea together. Look down at the water around the rocks. Beneath the castle rock is a sea cave, often called the Mermaid's Cave, and that is the source of the booming sound you heard at the start. The waves have been working on this headland far longer than any family has lived on it. Every stone wall here is a short chapter in a much longer story of rock and sea.

As you walk back across the bridge, turn around once more. Notice how small the ruins look against the cliff and the open water. Notice the gulls riding the wind beside the walls, and the colour of the grass against the dark basalt. People fought for this rock, feasted on it, and finally left it. The sea stayed. Listen to it for a moment longer before you go.