Qualla: Glenarm Castle

Glenarm Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GlenarmCastle, CC BY-SA 3.0. Four hundred years. The McDonnell family has lived at Glenarm continuously since 1636, and the estate around the present castle has been in their hands since the early 1600s. By the standards of British and Irish stately homes, that is a long run. By the standards of the Glens of Antrim - where Vikings, Scots, Normans, English, and Irish all took turns trying to control the same handful of coastal valleys - it is essentially the entire modern era under one family.

Read more: Glenarm Castle on Qualla

Image: GlenarmCastle | CC BY-SA 3.0

Glenarm Castle: The Bissets and a Skeleton in the Wall

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mauldy, CC BY-SA 2.0. There has been a castle at Glenarm since the 13th century. The first builders were the Bissets, a family who had acquired the lands between Larne and Ballycastle from Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster. John Bisset made Glenarm his capital, and by 1260 the village had a castle at its c...

Read more: Glenarm Castle on Qualla

Image: mauldy | CC BY-SA 2.0

Glenarm Castle: The Wife, the Horse, and the Hound

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit michael clarke stuff, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1495, the Bisset chieftain of Glenarm was so renowned in the country that a rival named Con O'Donnell of Tirconnell decided he simply had to have what the Bisset had. According to the chroniclers, O'Donnell had been told that MacEoin of the Glens - as the Bisset chief was know...

Read more: Glenarm Castle on Qualla

Image: michael clarke stuff | CC BY-SA 2.0

Glenarm Castle: Sir Randal Builds a House

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Albert Bridge, CC BY-SA 2.0. The current castle was built in 1636 by Sir Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, the man who had successfully turned MacDonnell power into a hereditary English title under James I. He chose the same site the Bissets had used and laid out the new house at the head of the village...

Read more: Glenarm Castle on Qualla

Image: Albert Bridge | CC BY-SA 2.0

Glenarm Castle: Gardens, Highland Games, and Outdoor Stages

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lindy Buckley from Nanjing, China, CC BY 2.0. Since the 1990s, Glenarm has been opening itself up. The walled garden is open to the public between May and September, with one of the finest collections of fruit trees, herbaceous borders, and Victorian glasshouses in Ireland. The grounds host an annual Highland Games every Jul...

Read more: Glenarm Castle on Qualla

Image: Lindy Buckley from Nanjing, China | CC BY 2.0

Glenarm Castle: On Screen Again

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Man vyi, Public domain. Like much of the Antrim coast, Glenarm Castle has more recently become a film set. It was used as a major location in Five Minutes of Heaven, the 2009 drama starring Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt about reconciliation in post-Troubles Northern Ireland. And the grounds of the castl...

Read more: Glenarm Castle on Qualla

Image: Man vyi | Public domain