Red Bay Castle
Red Bay Castle ( Gaelic : Caislen Camus Rhuaidh ) is a ruined castle on a peninsula north of the Glenariff Valley on the road to the village of Cushendall in County Antrim, Northern Ireland . It is listed as a Scheduled Monument .
history
The castle was built in the 13th century by the Bissett family on the site of an earlier Motte , an outpost of the kingdom of Dál Riata . The Bissett family had their lands in Scotland stripped and they could only save their bare lives to Ireland after Walter de Bissett was charged in 1242 with the murder of Padraig , Earl of Atholl , at Haddington , East Lothian . King Henry III of England gave the Bissetts fiefdoms in the barony of Glenarm.
John Mór ´MacDonald , 1st from Dunnyveg, married Margery Bissett from Glens of Antrim and received Red Bay Castle. His descendants, known as the MacDonnells of Antrim , expanded and renovated the castle in the 16th century. In 1565 the castle was burned to the ground by Shane O'Neill , clan chief of the O'Neills of Tyrone . It was rebuilt by Sorley Boy MacDonnell , but later fell into disrepair.
In 1604 Red Bay Castle was repaired again, but destroyed again in 1652 by Oliver Cromwell during the reconquest of Ireland .
Web links
- Red Bay Castle is listed on the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record on the country's Environment Agency website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Red Bay Castle . 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
- ↑ Bisset name . 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
Coordinates: 55 ° 4 ′ 3 ″ N , 6 ° 3 ′ 21 ″ W.