Antrim Castle

Antrim Castle was built originally in 1613 by an English settler, Sir Hugh Clotworthy, and enlarged in 1662 by his son, John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene. It was through his daughter and heiress, Mary, and her marriage to Sir John Skeffington, 4th Baronet (by special remainder he would become the 2nd Viscount Massereene), that the estate and title came to the latter family. The castle was rebuilt in 1813. For some time the castle was used for political conferences; in 1806, The Rt. Hon. John Foster, the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, was reported to have spoken in the Oak Room of the castle at a meeting. At 3am after a small family gathering on 28 October 1922, the…

Antrim Castle had been rebuilt in 1813 as a three-storey Georgian-Gothic castellated mansion, designed by Dublin architect, John Bowden. The Restoration style doorway of the original castle, featuring heraldry and a head of Charles I, was re-erected as the central feature of the entrance front. It also had tower-like projections at the corners of round-angle turrets. A tall hexagonal turret of ashlar was added to the front in 1887 when the castle was further enlarged. There was also a 17th-century formal garden, unique in Ulster. The gardens also featured a long canal with another canal at right angles to it, making a T shape, as well as a motte of a Norman castle. Jacobean-Revival…