Remains of Antrim Castle, Antrim Castle Gardens, Randalstown Road, Antrim, Co Antrim

Remains of Antrim Castle

This is the sole surviving fragment of Antrim Castle, a country house with origins dating back to 1613. The remaining structure is a late Victorian hexagonal tower, built in the castle style, reputedly in 1887 as an addition to the rear of the castle. Following the burning of the castle in 1922 and the demolition of its ruins in 1970, the tower now stands alone and carries a significance well beyond its own architectural merits. It provides the only visible and tangible evidence on site of what was once a very important country house, and forms an evocative and romantic element within the castle gardens.

Architectural Description

The tower is tall and hexagonal, built of roughly coursed snecked blackstone rubble with granite quoins to its corners. Moulded granite stringcourses form slight offsets at the two lower stages. Above these sits a moulded granite cornice, a granite blocking course, and granite crenellations bearing trefoil sinkings. Small narrow coupled arch-headed windows of the bifore type — set in rectangular granite panels — appear at various heights on some faces, with those in the lower stages walled up. The former entrance is a narrow four-centred Gothic archway at ground level in the west face, now walled up with random blackstone rubble.

The ends of walls from the former castle abut the tower at various heights. These walls are composed partly of blackstone rubble, partly of brickwork, and partly of smooth cement render. The wall on the west side retains some granite quoins. The wall to the east retains part of a window reveal and a drip moulding, which formed part of the main south façade of the former castle. On the north-west side, a modern concrete platform on a rubble stone base occupies the angle between two of the walls and is arranged to form an outdoor stage, approached by short narrow flights of steps. On the south side, a broad flight of stone garden steps is attached to one corner of the tower, providing access between the lower and higher levels of the grassed grounds.

History of the Castle

Antrim Castle was originally built in 1613 by Hugh Clotworthy (later Sir Hugh Clotworthy), an important English settler. He is also reputed to have constructed an artillery fort in 1596 just to the east of the later castle site, though the exact extent and appearance of the 1613 building remains uncertain.

The castle was reputedly rebuilt in 1662 by Hugh Clotworthy's son John, who played an active part in the restoration of Charles II and was created the 1st Viscount Massereene in recognition of his services. In this form, the castle had a five-bay, three-storey recessed entrance front flanked by projecting square end bays facing east, with a long south elevation overlooking the river featuring a series of gables, as depicted in a painting by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in 1806.

The castle was in turn rebuilt or remodelled in 1812–13 by the 4th Earl of Massereene — the earlier year reported by Dubourdieu in 1812, the later year having been inscribed on the entrance front. In its remodelled form the castle appeared as a Georgian-Gothic castellated mansion: a crenellated parapet was added to the roof, narrow circular turrets were added to the corners of the projecting end bays, the original early 17th-century doorway was re-erected as the central feature of the entrance front, and the gables overlooking the river were replaced by a crenellated parapet. The architect of this remodelling has not been recorded. The work has in the past been attributed to John Bowden, but only on the circumstantial evidence of his supposed authorship of the barbican gatehouse, for which he does not now appear to have been responsible. A possible attribution may be made in favour of Richard Morrison and his son William Vitruvius Morrison, based on the inclusion of a view of Antrim Castle in Neale's Views of Seats, a publication which promoted a number of their commissions and drew on information and drawings supplied by them.

Later in the 19th century, transomed and mullioned bays were added to the long river-front elevation; whether this occurred before or at the same time as the addition of the hexagonal tower at its western end in 1887 is uncertain. The tower was built for John Foster, 11th Viscount Massereene and Ferrard. Its architect is not recorded, but it may be attributed to William Fennell, who was employed by the 11th Viscount elsewhere in Antrim during the 1880s and 1890s, including a design for a gatelodge in 1884 and the forge at Massereene in 1887.

The Entrance Frontispiece

The most elaborate element of the castle's exterior was its ornamented entrance frontispiece. At the top was a sculptured head of Charles I, immediately beneath which were the royal arms with 'C' and 'R' flanking the crown. Below that were two shields — one bearing the arms of Sir Hugh Clotworthy, founder of the castle, and the other those of his wife Mary Langford — flanked by the inscribed words 'Castrum Hoc Cond', 'Decimo Maii', and 'Anno Domini 1613', above the initials 'HC' and 'MC'. Between the initials was the inscription 'Renov. C. Comes Massereene MDCCXIII', placed there by Chichester, 4th Earl of Massereene in 1813. Between this inscription and the doorcase was a rectangular panel containing a blind semicircular archway enclosing a circular panel inscribed 'Hoc Castellum Auspice Joanne Clotworthy Undecimo Vice Comite Massereene Refectum Et Amplificatum Est A.D. MDCCCLXXXIX', together with a sculptured coat of arms and a sculptured cartouche. This rectangular panel does not appear in Neale's 1825 view of the castle, which appears to be an error on Neale's part, as an illustration of a drawing by Mark Kerr dating from 1811 shows the frontispiece in place at that date. It is possible that the later inscriptions of 1813 and 1889 were added to the frontispiece over time, the 1889 inscription being placed by John Foster, 11th Viscount Massereene, 4th Viscount Ferrard, to mark the completion of his alterations in the late 1880s.

Destruction and Demolition

On 28th October 1922, during a grand ball, a fire swept through the castle. It stood as a ruin until 1970, when it was deemed unsafe and demolished — with the exception of this hexagonal tower and the adjoining ends of walls, which were left in position. The cut stonework of the ornamented entrance frontispiece was dismantled and put into storage with the intention of re-erecting it in a suitable location within the grounds.

The Wider Demesne

The grounds of the castle were laid out with formal gardens in the late 17th or early 18th century. These included long canals and circular ponds, which still survive, parterres which have disappeared and then been recreated or remodelled, a remodelled early medieval motte which still exists, and an 18th-century stone bridge leading to parkland on the opposite side of the river. Stone ramparts and bastion walls pre-dating the building of Antrim Castle also survive. In the 19th century, a gatehouse was built in 1818 forming the main entrance to the demesne from the town, and a stable block — later known as Clotworthy House — was built around 1840.

Setting

The tower and its adjoining elements stand in an open grassy area of the castle gardens, close to the bank of the Six Mile Water River but set back from it behind a rubble stone wall. On the opposite bank, overlooking the tower, stands a modern leisure centre. The tower is approached on foot through Antrim Castle Gardens, with pedestrian access from Dublin Road and vehicular access from Randalstown Road. The tower and its adjoining walls stand within the area of an ancient monument (SMR no. ANT 174).