This article originally appeared in “The Glynns” Volume 2 (1974)
CO. ANTRIM
The County Town: Carrickergus
Towns: Belfast, Antrim, Ballymenagh, Lisburn, Ballimoney, Ballycastle, Randalstown1, Larne.
Fair Head Point: In describing this county I shall begin with the Fair Head Point in the north-east most remote part of Ireland, situated in the barony of Cary, which is the finest, fairest, boldest headland in the county, perhaps in all Ireland or Great Britain.
The headland of Cantire opposite to it in Scotland, taking in the mountain over the rocks is higher than it, but the rock itself is not near so bold, steep and perpendicular2. It overlooks the island of Raghlin called Ricina by Ptolomey, Ricnea by Pliny, Riduna by Antonius, by the Irish Antiquaries Ro-chrann from an abundance of trees formerly growing in it, Ro signifying much, and Crann a tree; by other Recran but commonly Rachlin, which though it hath a high bold head to the westward, called the great head of Raghlin, yet the whole island looks almost a flat below it.
Raghlin: This island of Raghlin though it be part of the county and the estate of the Earl of Antrim, yet is not reckoned before in the admeasurement of the County3. The island is in the shape of a boot and is about six miles long, but not a mile broad in the widest part, and in some parts not half a mile, and is distant from the Fair Head about two Irish miles.
The land of this island is converted chiefly to tillage by which and fishing the inhabitants gain a comfortable support. Their language is much like the Highland Scottish Irish and they wear a knit bonnet like the Scotch.
There was anciently a church in this island founded by Segene, Abbot of Hi (Hiensis – Iona) AD 634 or 635, as the Annals of Ulster and Tigernach and from them Ussher relate. But this church with the island was wasted and destroyed by the Danes in the year 795 and it was the first place of Ireland that these pirates attempted.
This seems to be one of the islands which Dicuil, an Irishman, hints at in this book entitled Of the Mensuration of the Provinces of the World according to Authority of those, whom the Emperor Theodosius sent to Measure the said Provinces. For having told us “that about our island of Ireland there are some islands small and some very small” he proceeds “that now they are wasted by the Norman Rovers, and void even of Anchentes”. In the Annals of the Four masters, this church is called an abbey, nay even a bishopric, where Flan McKellach, bishop of Recran is said to have died AD 7344.
These annals carry down a succession of the abbots of Raghlin as low as the year 973, in which it is said that St. Ferdedach, abbot of Recran was crowned with martyrdom by the Normans or Danes. The island contains about 500 inhabitants, who had no resident clergyman among them till of late5.
It was annexed to the parish of Ballintoy in the county of Antrim. The Rev. Dr. Archibald Stewart, minister of that parish gave up the small tithes and the trustees and governors of Queen Anne’s bounty out of the first fruits bought the great tithes of the said island, and the gentlemen and clergy of the neighbourhood built a new church on the ruins of an old one, and thus enabled a clergyman to reside.
The late Dr. Hutchinson, Bishop of Down and Connor, procured the church catechism to be translated into Irish for the use of the inhabitants of the island, and called it the Raghlin Catechism. He also partly at his own charge and partly by contributions from the Duke of Grafton and others purchased a collection of books which are deposited in the parsonage house to serve for a library for the incumbent6. I know nothing else the island is remarkable for but a breed of the best hawks.
To return to Fair Head. This is a bold coast without danger from hidden rocks and you may sail in deep water almost close to the shore. But as there is a strait between this head and the head of Cantire, through which the whole northern tide in conveyed filling Clyde and St. George’s Channel as far as the southern point of Dundrum in the county of Down on the Irish coast, and the Pool of Foudray on the English coast, where the tide from the southward meets this northern tide; this causes a very strong current to set in and out with the tide, and strong eddy tides by these indraughts, which ships are to guard against and for that reason keep a good offing. For there being generally sudden calms and flurries of wind under these high coasts, ships must be careful not to come too close under the land.
Herrings: Through this passage comes in May and June the shoal of herrings which is divided upon the north coast of Ireland in their annual migration from the North Western Ocean. For coasting the Western islands and coasts of Scotland and entering the Irish Channel according as the winds lie more easterly or westerly, they either enter Clyde or hold along the Irish coast keeping generally along the weather shore in shelter and in smooth water; and thus they gradually advance to their several places of spawning in Strangford Lough, Carlingford, Dublin and Waterford on the Irish coast, and in Clyde and along the English and Welsh coast, and sometimes as far as Bristol Channel.
Torr Head:7 Near two leagues from this head coasting south eastward is another headland called Torr Head which is a low bold cape or perpendicular rock about 10 fathoms high running into the sea under the high mountains of the Torr about 300 or 400 yards in a curve to the eastward, but the coast being entirely a rock there is no safety for any vessel. This low cape and the highlands above it are opposite to the headlands of Cantire in Scotland. not distant from it above six leagues, the broken waters of the waves of Cantyre being plainly visible from the Irish coast, when the spectator is near the water level at the Torr head.8
Above this cape and between it and Fair Head (though very high and mountainy, it being at least 700 or 800 feet high and in many places covered with heath and bog) there is a vein of white limestone spreading for some miles, which is always green and dry, having a fine sward of sweet grass and is very good sheep pasture, though upon the level with heathy boggy mountains, appearing beautiful in the midst of a desert of heath and moor.
Cashendun Bay: This high land continues about two leagues south of the Torr where the Dunn water falls into the sea, and the territory of the Glynns begins. This rapid brook runs through Glendun and separates the baronies of Cary and Glenarm. Over it is a bridge often carried away by the rapidity of the mountain floods. It falls into a little sandy bay called Cashendun bay, having a little bluff head to the south westward of it, which forms some safety for small vessels and is the usual port of passage from Ireland to Cantyre, being distant from it near seven leagues.
At this bay is a vale about half a mile broad before it rises on each side to the mountains, which though now heathy yet are reclaimable and may be made fit for tillage and pasture. The vale extends above a mile into the country, and in it two rivers join, one coming from Glendun, the other from Glencorp. Glendun is much contracted higher up in the country, not being a quarter of a mile broad when it takes a sudden rise to the mountains on each side.9 But the other Glyn continues broader and hath good meadows at bottom for two or three miles and shows a pretty good country to the southward.
Cashendall: Through this Glyn two of three brooks run, which uniting form the river of Cashendall on which about a quarter of a mile above its entrance into the sea stands a little village of the same name with the river, with a mill, and there is a very good vale within the mountains for three or four miles round it. It is about a league by sea from Cashendun harbour to Cashendall, between which upon the side of a hill over the sea stands a small thatched church called Layd.10
At the mouth of Cashendall river (called in some charts Layd Bay) some small vessels under 20 tun at high tides, being only a dry harbour. At Cashendall are the remains of an old castle built I believe by the Macdonalds, upon their possessing the Glynns, and a little above it is a fine hill rising like a sugar loaf, commanding a prospect over the adjoining valley and Glynns, and an extended view to the east over the sea to the south of Clyde and Arran and Elz in Clyde.
Red Bay: About a mile south of Cashendall stands the Castle of Red Bay, now in ruins, having been the seat of Captain Stewart of Red Bay, whose son enjoys some of the neighbouring lands in freehold under the Earl of Antrim. This castle was built upon a red freestone rock about 60 feet perpendicular over the sea, commanding a most beautiful prospect of Red Bay, the sea and the mountains and rocks adjoining it.11 This Glynn and bay are surprisingly agreeable and would in draught yield a most delightful scene.
Glynarriv: The Glynn westward of Red Bay is called Glynarriv or Glenariffe through which a very considerable brook called by Sir William Petty the river Dree runs, abounding with river and white sea trouts, which go up as far as the falls will allow them. The river and glynn run about North-North East. All the upper part of the glyn and the sides for some way up the steep is finely wooded with oak, ash, birch alder and hazel, and for above a mile from the sea is a perfect lawn which may be laid out in meadows, sheepwalk or cornfields.12 Along this fine sandy bay without a stone for about two hundred or three hundred yards broad are sand hills abounding with rabbits.13 At the mouth of the river for a very little expense may be made a safety for vessels of 40 and 50 tuns.
Great Guns: On the north side of Red Bay there are four hollows in the rocks called the Great Guns, the largest of which is about 80 foot deep and of a considerable breadth at the entrance. It is remarkable that though a storm blows in the face of these caves, yet at the very entrance you can enjoy a perfect calm. One of them is inhabited by a poor family, who it is said keep a bawdy house in it for the recreation of the neighbourhood.14
Garron or Ardclinis Point: On the south side of this bay is a very steep and high mountain, the point or headland of which is called Garron Point or more commonly Ardclinis Head. This is a bold cape very near equal in height to the Fair Head. A great part of this head is of white limestone mixed with flint as hard as marble, some veins of which will take a polish.
This whole side of the bay is so straight as to look like a regular wall and can only be passed down by horses in one or two places with great difficulty. Yet it hath been often affirmed with certainty that one Captain Stewart an excellent though too adventurous horseman in the lifetime of the Lord Marquis of Antrim upon a wager of £5 galloped down that steep road.15
He was obliged to make a “suddain” turn at the angle of a rock which jutted out in the midst of the steep, from which he received such a shock, that one of his pistols fell out of the holster and fell over the rock; yet he preserved his seat and galloped down the remainder without damage. Upon reflecting on his danger when he was down, he was so exasperated at his companion, that he was determined to have sacrificed him to his passion, had not the other avoided him ‘till he cooled. This mountain is so high that in the winter months the sun never shines in the valley unless a little towards the rising ground on the North side.
On the North West side of the bay is as high a mountain, almost perpendicular and impassable. It breaks off suddenly at the level of its height when it comes within less than a mile and half from the shore by a perpendicular rock near 20 fathom high and from thence hath a gradual descent to the sea.
This face where it breaks off is about 200 or 300 yards at right angles with the sides, the north west side being a perpendicular rock as well as that side over Red Bay so that from sea at north east it appears like the table mount at the Cape of Good Hope, it not being seen whether it be joined to the mountain behind it or not.
Down this precipice the neighbouring inhabitants are obliged to carry their firing or turf, which are made on the top of the mountain; for which end they have contrived a zig zag way to get up their horses, and when they carry their loads to the precipice, there is a place naturally scarped with a regular slope in the face of the rock not so perpendicular as to break their turf, and down this “sloap” they discharge their loads, and take them up again at the bottom.
In this bay is good riding ground for ships in a clean fair sand, and well defended from all winds. It abounds with variety of fish and is excellent for drawing a “seyene”, there being no stones to interrupt or spoil the net. A great many “soal”, turbot, flounders, and “plaise” may be taken here by the draw net and bag net. There is also off this bay good fishing for cod and ling with long lines and handlines and plenty of very good herrings are taken here early in their passage even with draw nets or “seynes.”16 Here are also excellent rock-fish upon the rocky coast of Ardclinis, and to the Northward of the bay by Cashendall and Cashendun very good whiting. pollan, rock codlings, lobsters and crabs.
In short this bay is a most excellent retirement for six weeks in the summer season, either for the healthy or invalids. For the former here is fishing either in rivers or the sea, shooting rabbits, setting for moore fowl or hunting on the mountains, in a healthy air and dry sandy soil, being free from marshes or stagnant water.
And for invalids here is the best browsing for goats in the kingdom to supply them with milk, there being the greatest variety of herbs, where a botanist might be most agreeably entertained and instructed and where in a rainy season there are not wanting amusements from the surprising cascades in these mountains after summer storms, all which have their beauties more or less as they are situated among rocks or trees.
Having passed Garron or Ardclinis Point the land falls away south-west and forms two bays between Ardclinis and Glenarm Head. The first I know no name for, the other is called Glenarm Bay.17 All this coast is safe without rocks or shoals and there is good riding off each of these bays. There is a small harbour in Glenarm Bay where the river of Glenarm hath its entrance into it. To the South Westward of Ardclinis Point stands a small seat of Mr. Donaldson, having a fair view of the Bay and a little further a seat of Major McColumbs called*. The lands about the first mentioned bay are very good, a great part of it being upon a white limestone, which is naturally a rich soil; the bay is prettily wooded and here is plenty of firing to burn lime for manure.
Glenarm: The town of Glenarm is near two leagues from Ardclinis Head. It is but a small sea-port village where the Earl of Antrim hath a summer seat, and above it a very large Deer Park enclosed with a wall of lime and stone and encompassing 3,700 acres plantation measure. It is well wooded and watered and sufficiently stocked with deer. The Castle of Glenarm, a spacious pile, was built as a mansion house for the family about the year 1636, and was burned down in the ’41 rebellion, since which it hath remained in ruins. Yet the walls seem to be entire and for the most part sound. The out offices are fitted up into lodgings to accommodate the Earl during the hunting season.18
Here are some gardens walled in, and planted with good fruit and cascades and other improvements laid out in taste by the late Earl, but nothing is done to them of late. The soil here is a rich limestone, and lies very warm among the hills. About two miles to the South of the town is another Deer Park belonging to the Earl of Antrim called the little park. It is naturally walled to the land side by perpendicular rocks, and fenced on the other by the sea, in which the hunted deer often take foil and are taken in the water, boats being laid ready for that purpose.
Ballygelly: From Glenarm Head to Ballygelly Head is near two leagues South East. It is dangerous for strangers to travel the road from Glenarm to Ballygelly in the night for the land in some places over the rocks not being enclosed several accidents have happened to men and horses tumbling over, whereof most perished, yet some have been miraculously preserved, an instance of which happened within these few years to a gentleman yet living near Antrim, Mr Shaw of Ballytweedy but his fall was in the day time. He with some other gentlemen were hare hunting near Lord Antrim’s little park above this range of rocks. In that part of the hill where he chanced to ride some farmer had thrown up a ditch against the precipice to prevent his cattle from feeding on the edge of the rock and falling over, as frequently happened.
He and another eagerly pursuing the cry, the hare and dogs took down the rock in some less dangerous place. Thinking it a common ditch he spurred his horse and leaped it up. When he had mounted the ditch he saw his danger and endeavoured to stop himself but the shock threw him over the horse’s head before the horse fell, and pitched him providentially into a brake of bushes growing in the rock several fathoms below him which broke his fall and prevented his going to the bottom.
The horse fell over him quite down, and was broken to pieces. His companion who was close after him, had just time to throw himself off his horse which he prevented from taking the leap. Looking over the precipice he was agreeably surprised to see Mr. Shaw alive and fastened in the bush, and it was with difficulty he had him drawn up by ropes.
The vale of Ballygelly is in the parish of Carncastle which is a prebendary. It is very rich and has a variety of soils, some limestone, others gravely or clay, and some higher up of a light hazel mould, all very good corn ground and fit for wheat, barley, oats, beans or peas according to the different soils. Upon the shore are thrown up great quantities of seaweed abounding with salts which wonderfully improves the land for two years.
Larne Harbour: From Ballygelly Head to the entrance of Larne Harbour formerly called Oldfleet Harbour and which forms one side of the Island of Magee is about two miles south-south east.19 All the coast near the shore is very safe and free from rocks or foul ground except close to the headlands but about two or three leagues north-north east from Larne Harbour and opposite to Ballygelly is a dangerous shoal or reef of rocks called The Maidens in the sea charts, but the natives give them the name of the Whillans, probably from the Irish word Vile which signifies mischief.
They are narrow and many of them lie under water at full sea, when only two or three appear like little rocky hammocks above water covered with the dung of fowl. It is foul ground for about two leagues and they lie near parallel to the coast north-north west and south-south east.20 In clear weather in the night there is no danger of them, because sailors can see the light upon the Copeland Isles, at the south entrance of Carrickfergus Bay, and may therefore be avoided by keeping the light more to the eastward or westward.21 This is the only dangerous reef from the Fair Head to the southward of Carrickfergus Bay.
Larne: Larne is a little thriving town, the most southerly of any part of the barony of Glenarm and the only town of note in the barony.22 The long leases lately made of this town by the Earl of Antrim contributes not a little to the improving condition of it, to which the safety of the harbour and the progress of the linen manufacture must greatly add. They spin, weave and bleach linens here in greatest perfection. A piece of 40 hundred cloth manufactured in this town was made a present of to her Royal highness the Princess of Orange at her wedding by the Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufacturers being the finest then ever made in this kingdom.
The town is situated near a mile westward of the entrance into the harbour near a little tongue of land which separates the outward from the inner harbour. The entrance into the harbour is from the north-east and is not near half a mile broad, being formed by the North point of the Isle Magee on one side and the tongue of land before mentioned on the other. It has no barr, but a deep water and a pretty brisk tide in and out, which flows upwards of four miles between the peninsula of Magee, and the parishes of Larne, Glynn and Templecorran. Vessels ride safely in the outward harbour in four or five fathom water; the inner harbour is dry at low water and the shipping lies bedded in a loose slutch or ooze. The lough or pool within is not above a mile and a half over at widest, and continues so far about two miles from the entrance and from thence is about ¾ of a mile and so contracts itself pretty regularly to the upper end, which is within less than a mile of the entrance of Carrickfergus Bay.
The rivers of Larne and Glynn and three or four other brooks run into it. There is but one small isle in it not above 20 yards over, called Seal Isle from seals sunning themselves there. As all the upper part of the bay is dry at low water, a fine sea grass grows upon the banks which is very sweet food for barnacles, duck, widgeons and teal of which there are great flights in the winter, and all mighty sweet and good, without the least rankness in taste. The herrings often touch here in their passage in the month of June and the harbour abounds with mullet, sole, turbot, plaice and flounders are also got here, but not in great plenty not much of the harbour being fit for trowling.
Footnotes
1. The towns in heavy type are specially marked in the MS. to indicate that they were four of the 234 boroughs represented in the Irish Parliament.
2. Torr Mor, due east of the Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse (1788) is 1358 feet above sea level; Fair Head is 636 feet.
3. In 1746 Alexander, fifth Earl of Antrim sold the island to Rev. John Gage, Prebendary of Aghadowey in the Diocese of Derry and son of Rev Robert Gage also Prebendary of Aghadowey and Chaplain to Queen Anne. Gage is said to have purchased the island with his wife’s fortune. This family has been associated with the island for eight generations – See W. Clark – Rathlin: Disputed Island, P.122 and A. 1. Young Three Hundred Years in Inishowen, P.285.
4. The present church of St. Thomas occupies the ancient site.
5. This estimate of the population of Rathlin by Henry in 1740 is substantially correct. – W. Clark, 1b. p. 180.
6. See Bishop Francis Hutchinson’s “State of the Case of the Island of Rathlin” printed in L. Ewart – Down and Connor and Dromore pp. 103-105.
7. Near Torr Point, as indicated on Norden’s Map of Ireland about 1610, there occurs the following
“At this marke the Scotties used to make their warning fires.” The precise spot was probably on the high land of Ballyucan adjoining Murlough Bay. “Across these narrow waters of the North Channel” writes Mr Andrew McKerral “there must have been traffic in both men and merchandise long before the age of recorded history, and no part of Scotland has had such a close connection with Ireland, a connection exhibited in the place names and personal names of Kintyre and in its folk songs and folklore.”
Kintyre in the Seventeenth Century, p. 1. The name Kintyre is derived from the Gaelic ceann (a head) and tir (land) and the meaning of the word is thus obvious. In the quaint phraseology of Camden’s Britannia the peninsula “thrusteth itself greedily towards Ireland.” The Rathbreasail Fathers when delineating the various dioceses of Ireland in their decrees A.D. 1110 mention Torbhuirg or Torr Head as one of the boundaries of the Diocese of Connor. Torbhuirg may be Tor Bhuraigh, or Dunworry Fort on Torr Head, where the watch house now stands. The Torr Head salmon fishery now owned by the McNeill Bros., Cushendun, is included in a list of “Fishing Stations on the Antrim Coast 1630” – See Hill, The Macdonnells of Antrim p. 429; also “The Synod of Rath Breasail” by Father John MacErlean, S.J. in Archivium Hibernicum or Irish Historical Records, Vol. 111, p. 32.
8. “The people on both coasts” says Hill, “continued to have contacts between the two shores until a comparatively recent date, which was only to be expected, seeing that they were of the same race, and were distant only a few hours’ sailing from each other. The channel between Torr Head in Antrim and the Mull of Kintyre is only about eleven miles and a half in breadth. In the memory of persons still living it was usual for Ulster people to carry linens across the channel for sale whilst Scottish pedlars brought quantities of woollen stuffs to these shores.
The Scots, at least until a comparatively late period, greatly preferred the music of the Irish harp to that of their own bagpipes, and the old Irish minstrels who could accompany their poetical recitations with the music of their harps, were welcomed wherever they went in Scotland, and liberally rewarded by the best families. This was only to be expected as one of the natural results of that early and uninterrupted intercourse which had existed between the two people on the opposite shores for upwards of a thousand years after the days of the Dalriadic emigrations.
They were identical not only in race, religion, social manners and political aims, but even in literary tastes. No appreciable distinction can be traced in their language during the long period of at least six centuries. And even during several centuries later, the senachies and bards of the mother country (Erin) were employed as the principal instructors of the people throughout the Highlands and Isles of Scotland.” – The Macdonnells of Antrim, p. 239. See also Father J. Webb’s most interesting and informative extracts from “The Record Books of the Customs Service of the Port of Campbelltown 1739 – 1816” in the Northern Ireland Public Record Office.
9. Glencorp, Glentaisie and Glenshesk are three of the nine Antrim glens that run in an almost north-south direction; the remaining six glens range in a direction nearly easterly or north-easterly.
10. For an account of this church see – Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 2nd series, Vol. V p. 35 Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiq. Of Down and Connor and Dromore p. 83. Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments. N.I. pp. 17-18. Also article entitled “The Curious Story of the Curates of Layd” in Belfast Telegraph 2/6/1944 by H.A. Boyd.
11. See Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland, p. 21.
12. It was this part of the Antrim Glens (Glenariffe) which W.M. Thackeray described in his Irish Sketch Book as “Switzerland in miniature.”
13. Richard Dobbs in 1683 states:- “This Bay is about a mile long and a fine small white sand, a very pleasant bottom, between mighty hills on both sides lies open to it; at the foot and next the Bay a very rich Conny warren of the Earl of Antrim’s; into the bay falls a river, at the foot of it boats have small harbour and hard by the boats are three large caves in the rocks of freestone, open to the sea, wherein poor people commonly live and one of them hath paid hearth money.” – Hill, The Macdonnells of Antrim p. 382.
14. See preceding footnote.
15. See Mr. J. Irvine’s article “The Old Coast Road from Larne to Ballycastle” in The Glynns, Vol. 1, P. 19. Mr Irvine is of the opinion that the spot where the gallant horseman made his perilous descent for a wager was by way of the Cushenilt Burn in the townland of Carrivemurphy and not far from the ruins of the old church of Ardclinis.
16. Dobbs in his description of Co. Antrim (1683) quoted in Hill’s Macdonnells of Antrim states: “This bay yields great plenty of fish as salmon, turbot, plaice, sole, cod, whiting, mackerel, ling, halibut, a fish somewhat like a turbot and herrings. I have seen the people stand upon the shore, some wading a little way out, and draw in small nets upon the shore in a dark night, and the lookers on with small bags in their hands, some would throw sand in the faces and eyes of the fishers, others with their bare feet or toes make holes in the nets for the herrings to slip out and so whip them into their bags and away with them.”
17. Note the complete lack of any reference to what is now the bay and village of Carnlough. In 1837 (Lewis – Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Vol. 1, p. 266) Carnlough contained but 47 houses. At the same date Cushendall contained 90 houses and Glenarm 145.*MS Blank. Marginal annotation: see the Earl of Sussex’s Journal of a march against the Scots in the North in the interleaved war. Ao 1556.
18. Glenarm Castle was rebuilt by Alexander, fifth Earl of Antrim in 1749. Dobbs, writing in 1683 says “above the town (Glenarm) in the Glen through which the river runs, and is clad with underwoods, is the pleasantest hunting for buck that ever I saw; for you may ride on either side, and have the dogs or bucks, or both continually in view, and stand in a manner still in one place for two hours together.” – Hill, The Macdonnells of Antrim, p. 382.
19. See Preliminary Survey of Ancient Monuments, Northern Ireland,p. 33:Chart, D.A. – A History of N. Ireland, p. 83 Larne (Ollarbha) was cited by the Rathbreasail fathers in their diocesan deliniations (AD1110) as one of the boundaries of the diocese of Connor – Rev. John MacErlean S.J. – Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. 111 (1914)p. 27.
20. The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, p.XXIV (1846) records under “Coast-Lights” – two lighthouses with fixed lights, on two of the Maiden Islands. This has since been altered and the present light characteristics one white group flash of three, every twenty seconds. The Maidens or Hulin rocks form part of the parish of Cairncastle.
21. Carrickfergus Bay is the old name for Belfast Lough. The light on Mew Island on the Copelands is a white group flash of four every thirty seconds. This light is clearly discernible in clear weather from the summit of the main mountain road between Cushendall and Ballycastle.
22. Larne. The bold and magnificent scenery of the Antrim coast begins to unfold itself in the vicinity of Larne and the eye is alternately attracted by the long range of precipitous mountain westward, known as Agnew’s Hill, 1450 feet above the sea level and the outline of the promontory called Ballygally Head rising abruptly at a very little distance from the road along the shore. The latter is a specimen of basaltic strata in a state of incipient columnisation. The different strata are composed of rudely formed pillars, whose joints measure from eight to ten feet, all having a dip toward the land – a characteristic indeed, which prevails along the whole coast. Under Ballygally Head stands an enormous rock which, at high water becomes a little island, on the summit of which is perched a ruinous structure known as Cairncastle, giving name to the parish. – Hill, The Macdonnells of Antrim, p. 428.