dunluce castle

It's entered by a gate-house, with corbelled turrets of Scottish type. To the right on entering are the pillars of a unique open loggia in the Italian style, which must have become redundant when the Great Hall was built up against it early in the 17th century. This two-storeyed hall, with fine (partially reconstructed) windows to the west, is a gracious building with finely moulded stones at parapet level which once supported the long-vanished roof. Beyond are kitchens and domestic quarters, parts of which fell into the sea in a disastrous collapse in 1639, bringing with it numerous servants to a watery grave.

Beneath the north-eastern tower is a souterrain, the only remnant of a pre-castle fortification or dun (giving the castle a part of its name), which dates to the Early Christian period. The oldest parts of the castle are the south wall and the two eastern towers, which date to the 14th century, by which period the place may already have been in the hands of the 'brave, hospitable and improvident' family of MacQuillans, who later relinquished it to the MacDonnells.