Clan Donald Magazine No13 (1995) Online
Dunluce Castle and the
Antrim MacDonnells by Kathlyn Fforde
Whenever I am in the north of Ireland I hurry to the Antrim coast to
look once again at the amazing sight of Dunluce Castle trembling on
the edge of the sea. From some points of view, particularly when
approaching it from the east, the castle seems to be made up of
dozens of tall fingers of stone pointing haphazardly towards the
sky. At one point, where this impression is especially strong, the
coast road divides in two, creating a short stretch of one-way road
in each direction, which suggests that the local council has
recognized the surprising nature of the view drivers will see here
and the effect it is likely to have on their driving.
In
actual fact the castle is still much more solid than this first
impression would suggest, although its condition is precarious
enough. The coast at this point,
like much of the Antrim coast, presents tall cliffs to the sea and
beyond these cliffs, with its top at the same level, is a large
rock, attached to the land only by ;i grassy area connecting the
base of the rock to the base of the cliffs. It is on this re )ck
that the castle is built
and one therefore reaches it over a deep chasm by means of a narrow
footbridge, replacing the original drawbridge, from which one
can see, far
below, cattle grazing the salt-sprayed grass and occasionally
staring
upwards in some surprise
at the intrepid visitor above them.
The
sea, pounding the castle rock to the north and north-east, and the
low-lying ground, like a sort of dry, grassy moat, to the south and
south-west, made the castle almost impregnable. On the northern side
the sea runs up under the castle to a sea gate and to a cave which
is also accessible on the southern side from a land gate. This land
gate is reached from the "moat", known as the Pound, in which cattle
were always herded to supply food for the castle, so the ones we see
there today are not a modern introduction. In spite of major efforts
to consolidate the whole structure the sea is gradually eating into
the rock on which it stands, so that it seems inevitable that it
will eventually crumble away.
Dunluce stands on the north coast of Antrim between Portrush to the
west and the Giant's Causeway to the east. Its early history is
obscure, but it may have been built about 1200 by Richard de Burgh,
Earl of Ulster, or one of his followers - at any rate by a Norman
knight. Many of these knights settled in Ireland after the Norman
Conquest of England, eventually becoming, so it was said, more Irish
than the Irish. At the beginning of the 16th century the castle was
in the hands of the MacQuillans, a native Irish family, but by the
latter part of that century Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell
(Yellow-haired Sorley, somewhat ridiculously Englished as Sorley
Boy) had established himself there. Sorley was the ancestor of the
Earls of Antrim and the 6th and youngest son of Alasdair Cahanagh
MacDonnell of Dunnyveg (Dun Naomhaig) and the Glens (the chief of
Clan Iain Mhoir). Sorley was the most forceful and the most
successful of his brothers and gradually took on the task of
consolidating MacDonnell power in the north of Ireland, the Scottish
territories of Clan Iain Mhoir remaining in the hands of his eldest
brother, James.
From
perhaps as early as 1200 Scots families, who had, of course,
originally come from Ireland when the Scottish Dalriada was
established, had moved to Ulster and other parts of Ireland, where
they helped the Irish to win back lands from Anglo-Normans who had
settled there. These Scots incomers were the galloglaigh (Irish =
foreign warriors) or gall-oglaich in Scots Gaelic and gallowglasses
in English. The galloglaigh are depicted as tall, strong warriors
carrying Lochaber axes or 2-handed swords and wearing a strange
quilted and pleated garment reaching to the knee and known as the
aketon, which is often to be seen on grave slabs. This movement of
galloglaigh stopped in the early 14th century, but in the 15th
century Scottish mercenary soldiers again began to appear in
Ireland, being then known as redshanks (from their bare legs), who
hired themselves out mainly to the MacDonnells and their allies.
There were constant comings and goings between Ireland and Scotland
at that period and Sorley MacDonnell could, and often did call up
reinforcements from Scotland by lighting a beacon fire on the coast
- on Fair head perhaps or Torr Head or above Murlough Bay. On a
clear day its flames could be easily seen from the Scottish coast
and it only took 2 to 3 hours, in fair weather, for redshanks to
cross in their galleys from Islay or Kintyre.
By
Sorley's time the build-up of Scots immigrants had thus become quite
considerable. Queen Elizabeth wanted them out, as foreign
interlopers in an English province, whilst the native Irish chiefs,
particularly the O'Neills, who regarded themselves as
High
Kings
of Ulster,
sometimes wanted them out too and at other times were glad of their
help against the English. Unfortunately for Gaeldom the three main
powers in Ulster
- O'Neill, O'Donnell
and MacDonnell - never managed to form an alliance for more than
brief periods. Had they done so they might well have pushed the
English out of Ulster altogether.
Queen
Elizabeth's Ulster policy was to support one magnate, Sorley for
instance, in the hope of keeping the other, O'Neill or O'Donnell or
both, within bounds, but this inevitably resulted in the former
becoming too strong, so that English support had to be transferred
to the latter, and so on ad infinitum.
The
first territories gained by the MacDonnells in Ulster were the Glens
-
Glentaisie, Glenshesk,
Glendun, Glenaan, Glenballyeamon, Glenariff, Glencloy and Glenarm -
which all have their beginnings roughly in the middle of Co. Antrim
and make their way to the north and east coasts, being arranged
something like the spokes in a quarter of a bicycle wheel. These
areas could be controlled from the castles at Dunyanie, near
Ballycastle, and Glenarm, both on the coast. To the Glens Sorley
added the Route, an area to the west of the glens between the River
Bush (famous for Bushmills whiskey) and the River Bann, having
consolidated his power there by his defeat of the MacQuillans
(former possessors of Dunluce) at the battle of Slieve an Aura in
1559. Dunluce Castle was therefore of the greatest importance to him
because his new territory could be controlled from it.
His
aim was to gain proper recognition from Elizabeth of his right to
the Glens and the Route and to this end he tried to remain neutral
during the frequent skirmishes between O'Neill and the Queen, but
this was often impossible.
The
interaction of these various policies and aspirations produced an
extremely fluid and complicated situation in the midst of which
Sorley struggled, sometimes by arms, sometimes by diplomacy, to
achieve his goal.
In
Sorley's lifetime Dunluce was taken twice, on the first occasion by
Shane O'Neill in May 1565 after the battle of Glentaisie in which he
had defeated the MacDonnells, killed Sorley's brother Angus and
taken Sorley and his eldest brother James (Dunnyveg) prisoner, along
with many other leaders from the Western Highlands and Islands.
James had been wounded in the battle and died later that year.
Sorley remained in captivity for 2 years. Shane forced the garrison
at Dunluce to surrender by threatening to starve James and Sorley to
death.
The
MacDonnells got their revenge for this defeat two years later in
1567 when Shane took Sorley with him to Alasdair Og's camp at
Cushendun to negotiate an alliance with the MacDonnells. (Alasdair
was another of Sorley's brothers). Sorley was to be exchanged for
MacDonnell troops which would be used to help Shane. After two days
of negotiations a drunken brawl developed, or so one version has it,
which ended in the death of Shane. The exact circumstances are
disputed, however, an alternative version being that Shane was
killed when negotiations broke down, perhaps due to a quarrel,
perhaps because his death had been premeditated by Alasdair Og.
Shane had in any case lost his bargaining power (in the person of
Sorley) when he took him into the MacDonnell camp and thus no longer
had a hold over him. Whatever the true version of this story may be,
it
does
seem certain
that Piers, the Engl ish governor of Carrickfergus Castle, called in
a Cushendun afterwards and, popping Shane's head into a pipkin of
brine, sent it off to Dublin, where the sight of it rejoiced the
Lord Deputy's heart. This does suggest that there might have been
collusion between the MacDonnells and the English.
After
Shane's death Sorley regained possession of Dunluce. It was taken
for the second time by the Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrott, who used
artillery to break down the defences in 1585.
But
Sorley was soon back again and in 1586 he did at last more or less
achieve his aim through a settlement in which he recognized
Elizabeth as his feudal superior and in return was granted
possession of the Route and also permitted to
hold the Glens,
by arrangement with his Dunnyveg kinsmen. He made his submission to
Elizabeth in Dublin, where he was confronted by the sight of his
son's head mouldering on a spike. This son, Alasdair, had been
killed in a skirmish with a Captain Mcrriman, who sought him out
amongst the wounded and killed him. Sorley is said to have remarked
- stoically and elliptically -"... my son hath many heads".
In
1588 Sorley rescued three guns from the Spanish galleon the
"Gerona", wrecked at Portnaspanaigh (Port of the Spaniards) near the
Giant's Causeway and mounted them at Dunluce. Not long ago treasure
from this ship was salvaged and displayed in the Ulster Museum.
Sorley died in 1590 and was succeeded by .his son James, who died in
1601 and was succeeded by his brother Ranald. Ranald was created 1st
Earl of Antrim and was probably responsible for extensive repairs
and additions to Dunluce. These include the rebuilding of the
gatehouse, which now has corbelled-out round towers in the Scottish
style. A large house of English style is also to be found inside the
main courtyard, the cast iron fireback in one of the rooms with the
arms of James VI and I on it, indicating its probable date.
In
1601 Ranald allied himself with the Earls of Tyrone (O'Neill) and
Tyrconnel (O'Donnell), the failure of whose rising culminated in
what is known as the "flight of the Earls". During Ranald's absence,
as he marched south to support his allies at the battle of Kinsale,
the Dunnyveg MacDonnells, in the person of Sir James of Knockrinsay,
seized Dunluce. Sir James hoped to persuade Elizabeth that he would
be a better person to control the Ulster territories than Ranald,
who had proved himself untrustworthy by joining the Irish chiefs,
but as Ranald quickly disassociated himself from the O'Neill rising
and as it was felt in London that the MacSorley MacDonells were more
desirable in the Glens and the Route than were the Dunnyveg
MacDonnells, Ranald managed to get back to Dunluce.
He
died in 1636 and was succeeded by his son Ranald, the 2nd Earl, who
settled down at Dunluce, which remained his headquarters and home.
He was an amusing, resourceful, charming, exasperating and extremely
optimistic fellow and had married Catherine Manners, the beautiful
young widow of the famous Duke of Buckingham, close friend of
Charles I, who, as we know, had been a very important person indeed.
Ranald and Catherine - "my dear old Duchess" as he-called her - were
a devoted couple, but he had some difficulty in persuading her to
live at Dunluce as, after the comfort and variety of the English
Court, she did not take altogether enthusiastically to life perched
on the sea. Her natural reluctance increased one night in 1639 when,
during a storm, part of the kitchen plus the dinner and several of
the cooks were swept into the sea. After that the family is said to
have withdrawn to a more stable part of the castle, possibly to the
more recent buildings on the mainland but, as we shall see, they
seem to have been still living on the rock in 1671.
Three
years later, during the rising of Sir Phelim O'Neill, a Scots Army
garrison under Colonel George Monro was put into Dunluce and
remained there until 1648. This army was made up of what are known
as the New Scots, i.e. not Highland galloglaigh or redshanks but a
Covenanting army. Monro had actually been Antrim's guest at the time
but proceeded to arrest his host, who was eventually transferred to
Carrickfergus Castle by sea "hearing behind him the rocks and hills
covered with the lamentation of his poor followers."
During his enforced absence from Dunluce Ranald, who had soon
managed to escape from Carrickfergus, was to and fro between Ireland
and England,
encouraging the Irish
to support the King and cheering up the English court with his
sparkling suggestions, all bound to lead to victory, and his offers
of thousands of men to support the Royal cause. The late Countess of
Antrim in her delightful account of her husband's family, which is
illustrated with her own cartoons, shows him holding forth, with
shining eyes and hands eloquently waving, to Henrietta Maria and her
ladies and gentlemen, who are all beaming with delight at the
ravishing prospects he is opening up to them amongst the miseries of
the Civil War. C.V. Wedgewood in "The King's War" cleverly
encapsulates his flamboyant and engaging character: "The Earl of
Antrim ... arrived from Ireland, alight with enthusiasm, ... (and)
had a joyful welcome in Oxford. With his customary ingenuity and
luck, he had escaped from his Scottish captors in Ulster, looked in
on the Confederate Irish at Kilkenny, offered to command all the
forces they sent to England, and now announced himself at Oxford as
General in Chief of the Irish. Not until some months later did it
become apparent that the Confederates had given him no such
appointment." Posterity, however, has been somewhat unkind to him,
for he was not by any means the only person in history to promise
troops and then be unable to produce them. Above all we must not
forget that it was he who organized the expedition to Scotland of
AJasdair MacColla - Sorley's great-great-nephew. This contribution
consisted of only 1100 men plus their wives, children and cattle
(Antrim had promised 10,000), but they became the mainstay of
Montrose's army.
In
1649 Charles I was executed and in the same year Catherine died.
Antrim himself managed to return to Ulster, but the family gradually
ceased to live at Dunluce and withdrew to Glenarm Castle, where they
still are. Dunluce was eventually allowed to fall into disrepair.
However, it must have remained reasonably habitable and been at
least occasionally the family home for some time after that, as
Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh and (Catholic) Primate of All
Ireland visited Dunluce in 1671 to discuss the appointment of clergy
with Antrim. He found some difficulty in doing this, as Antrim
objected to all the names on his list. In a letter Plunkett wrote of
the Marquis (Ranald had been created Marquis but the title went into
abeyance when he died childless, the earldom passing to a brother):
"The visitation of the Hebrides remains, but if the Sacred
Congregation does not write a letter to the Marquis we shall be able
to effect nothing. This nobleman has great influence in these
islands, but he is in every respect.... good and prudent, but slow
and scrupulous in everything. It is difficult to find people to suit
the Marquis of Antrim. I proposed no fewer than twenty priests, but
he had something to say against every one of them ... A courteous
letter to this nobleman commemorating also the piety of his
ancestors will be very efficacious in promoting the matter. I was
with him three days at his house in Dunluce; it is a noble building,
the palace is perched on a high rock which is lashed on every side
by the sea." The daring, charismatic figure of the forties had
become circumspect and perhaps a trifle crotchety in his
old age.
Plunkett was later suspected of being involved in the Popish Plot -
the plot that never existed except in the mind of the villainous
Titus Oates. As no Irish court would convict the Archbishop he was
sent to England for trial and there, after
a long
imprisonment, was condemned to death. Owing to the very sensitive,
not to say hysterical state of England at that time, with Papists
feared to be under every bed, the King did not feel himself able to
save him and so, ten years after his visit to Ranald at Dunluce,
Plunkett was executed.
Ranald himself died only a year after Plunkett, in 1682, at the age
of 72. He had remarried, his second wife being Rose O'Neill,
daughter of Sir Henry O'Neill
of Shane's
Castle, but how much time they spent at Dunluce is not clear.
In
1928 the 7th Earl transferred the castle to the care of the Ministry
of Finance for Northern Ireland and since then it has been preserved
as an Ancient monument.
But
although the MacDonnells are long gone from Dunluce their castle
still stands defiantly at the edge of the sea and the wall of its
gatehouse still bears one of their galleys incised in its stone.
Once I stood there on a day when a strange green mist rose out of
the sea, encircling the castle walls and cutting them off from both
sea and land, and at other times I have stood there on a clear day
and seen the promontories of the north Antrim coast stretching away
from me to the east and far away, to the north-east, the faint line
of the Scottish coast from which the redshanks came and towards
which the galleys of Alasdair MacColla, Montrose's General, sailed.
The sea crashes on the rocks below and the cattle wander over the
thick green grass of the Pound. To the west is the Route, the soft
low lands, stretching out to the River Bann at Coleraine. To the
east are the Glens, the high lands of Antrim, where the rivers flow
through deep valleys and the bright fields rush up the hillsides
almost to the top, making the cattle and sheep seem to defy the laws
of gravity. It is a quiet country of small farms, the sea never very
faraway. So quiet that it is difficult, even amongst the tumults of
the last 25 years, to remember that these are the lands that Sorley
and his descendants struggled for so long to keep at the cost of so
much blood.
Sources include:
A
Guide to Dunluce Castle. H.M.S.O., 1984
Angela Antrim: The Antrim McDonnells. Ulster Television, 1977
Cahal Dallat: Antrim Coast and Glens. A Personal View. H.M.S.O..
1990
J. Michael Hill: Fire & Sword. Sorlev Boy MacDonnell and the Rise of
Clan Ian Mor (sic)
1538-1590,
Athlone Press, 1993
David Stevenson: Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates. Ulster
Historical Foundation, Belfast
1981
David Stevenson: Alasdair MacColla and the Highland Problem in the
Seventeenth Century. John
Donald,
Edinburgh, 1980
CV
Wedgewood:
The King's War 1641-1647. Penguin, 1983
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