Antrim Castle

Antrim Castle stood on the banks of the Sixmilewater River in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Built in stages between 1613 and 1662, it was a fortified mansion that later became a grand Georgian-Gothic castellated house. The original structure was enlarged by John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene, and rebuilt in 1813 by Dublin architect John Bowden. The castle’s Restoration style doorway, featuring heraldry and a head of Charles I, was preserved and re-erected as the entrance’s central feature. In 1922, a fire destroyed the castle, and it was demolished in the 1970s, leaving only a grassed platform, an Italian stair tower, and a gatehouse with twin neo-Tudor towers. The castle’s history includes notable events such as a 1689 raid by Jacobite General Richard Hamilton, who looted silverware worth £3,000. Political conferences were held there, including one in 1806 where The Rt. Hon. John Foster, the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, spoke in the Oak Room. The 1922 fire was suspected to be arson by the IRA, though the official verdict was inconclusive. Centenary commemorations in 2022 included historian Lyndsy Spence leading tours, and historian Stephen McCracken later published evidence confirming IRA involvement. Visitors to the site find the remaining structures set within carefully restored gardens. The Italian stair tower, built in 1887, and the gatehouse with its twin towers stand as reminders of the castle’s past. The gardens feature a long canal in a T shape, a motte from a Norman castle, and Jacobean-Revival outbuildings. A statue of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip was unveiled in the gardens in 2024. The formal gardens, restored at a cost of £6 million, won the Ulster in Bloom Special Award in 2012. Clotworthy House, once part of the estate, now serves as a conference centre.