Qualla: Castle Upton

Castle Upton: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wilson Adams, CC BY-SA 2.0. Robert Adam never crossed the Irish Sea. The Scottish architect who shaped Georgian taste in London and Edinburgh - whose neoclassical interiors set the standard for an age - was commissioned in the 1780s to remodel a country house in County Antrim he would never see. He drew the new roofline, the castellated north wing, a domed mausoleum, and a double-courtyard stable block from drawings sent across the water. The owners executed his scheme. Most of it survives at Castle Upton in Templepatrick - the only Robert Adam castle in Ireland, designed by an architect who knew it only on paper.

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Image: Wilson Adams | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castle Upton: The Knights and the Plantation

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tom Courtney, CC BY-SA 2.0. The site at Templepatrick was supposedly once held by a thirteenth-century fortified priory of the Knights of St John. The evidence for that is thin enough that some historians doubt the priory ever existed. What is certain is that Sir Robert Norton - an officer under Sir Arthur ...

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Image: Tom Courtney | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castle Upton: Adam's Drawings

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah McGuire, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1776, Clotworthy Upton was created Baron Templetown after serving in the household of Princess Augusta, the dowager Princess of Wales. He commissioned Robert Adam to remodel his Antrim seat in the castellated Gothic style then fashionable. Adam's plans, sent from Britain, alte...

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Image: Sarah McGuire | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castle Upton: Remember Orr

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ManfredHugh, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Templepatrick Old Burial Ground beside the castle holds the Templetown Mausoleum and, remarkably, the grave of William Orr - the United Irishman whose 1797 execution in Carrickfergus became one of the rallying cries of the 1798 rebellion. Remember Orr, the rebels shouted at t...

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Image: ManfredHugh | CC BY-SA 4.0

Castle Upton: Adam Yard, Wedding Yard

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit michael clarke stuff, CC BY-SA 2.0. Castle Upton fell into poor repair in the early twentieth century. Sir Robin Kinahan and his wife Coralie de Burgh bought it in 1963 and began the long restoration. Adam Yard, the stable block, was converted into housing. The castle itself was eventually opened as a wedding venue...

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Image: michael clarke stuff | CC BY-SA 2.0