Belfast Castle (Irish: Caisleán Bhéal FeirsteIreland Highlights: Belfast Castle. https://www.irelandhighlights.com/info/belfast-castle/ ) is a mansion located in Cave Hill Country Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a prominent position above sea level. Its location provides unobstructed views over the City of Belfast and Belfast Lough.Ireland Highlights: Belfast Castle. https://www.irelandhighlights.com/info/belfast-castle/ There have been several structures called "Belfast Castle" over the centuries, located on different sites. The current "castle" is a Victorian structure that was built between 1867 and 1870 on the slopes of Cave Hill, and it is Grade A listed. The main entrance into the Belfast Castle Demesne is now where Innisfayle Park meets Downview Park West, just off the Antrim Road (part of the A6). The original main entrance into the current demesne was formerly on the Antrim Road itself, where Strathmore Park now meets the Antrim Road.Culture Northern Ireland: The Buildings of the Belfast Castle Estate - The Chapel of the Resurrection and The Gate Lodges. https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/buildings-belfast-castle-estate
History Medieval and Early Modern Castle There have been several structures called "Belfast Castle" over the centuries; not all of these structures have been on the same site. In fact, all the earlier structures called Belfast Castle were on a completely different site, and in a completely different area of Belfast, from the current Belfast Castle. Originally, a castle had been erected at Béal Feirste (Belfast) by the 1220s, probably to guard the important ford across the River Lagan. This medieval castle may have been built by the Normans, who invaded East Ulster in the late twelfth century.J.C. Beckett, "Belfast to the end of the eighteenth century" in J.C. Beckett et al., Belfast: The Making of the City, p. 13. Lagan Books, Belfast, 2003 (originally published by The Appletree Press, Belfast, 1983). These Norman invaders carved out a territory for themselves which was centred on Carrickfergus, this territory later becoming known as the Earldom of Ulster.Philip Robinson, Irish Historic Towns Atlas Number 2: Carrickfergus, pp. 1-2. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1986.
By 1333, a small settlement is thought to have developed around the castle at Belfast. This original "Belfast Castle", located on what later became the County Antrim side of the River Lagan, was probably in the area now bounded by Donegall Place, Castle Place, Cornmarket, and Castle Lane in the centre of what is now Belfast City Centre. Although originally built in either the late twelfth-century or the early thirteenth-century, this castle was "rebuilt" on several occasions between the 1220s and the 1550s, possibly being "rebuilt" on the same site or on an adjacent site. This original, medieval castle was almost certainly on, or very near, the same site as the much later "Plantation-era" castle developed for Lord Chichester.
This original High Medieval, Late Medieval and Early Modern castle site was on the southern bank of the River Farset (which now flows beneath High Street), being located on a sliver of land that was bounded by the Farset to the north and the River Owenvara (Blackstaff River) to the south. Both the River Farset and the River Owenvara (Irish: Abhainn Bheara, meaning "River of the Staff", usually known nowadays in English as the Blackstaff RiverPatrick McKay, A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names, p. 25. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, 1999.) emptied into the River Lagan just to the east of this castle site.
The medieval Belfast Castle was eventually seized by a branch of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty of the Cénel nEógain, probably at the end of the fourteenth-century or the beginning of the fifteenth century.Tom McNeill, "County Down in the Later Middle Ages" in Lindsay Proudfoot (Editor), Down: History and Society, p. 117 and p. 119. Geography Publications, Dublin, 1997.Rachel Tracey and Audrey Horning, "Ulster plantation towns: an archaeology of rhetoric and reality" in Brendan Scott (Editor), Society and Administration in Ulster's Plantation Towns, p. 17. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2019. The Uí Néill almost certainly had Belfast Castle rebuilt at some stage, probably as a Gaelic towerhouse, either building on the same site as the Norman castle or else building their towerhouse very near to that site. This branch of the Uí Néill carved out a túath or Gaelic territory for themselves in South Antrim and North Down, this túath soon becoming known as Clann Aedha Buídhe (Clandeboye).Philip Robinson, Irish Historic Towns Atlas Number 2: Carrickfergus, p. 2. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1986.Tom McNeill, "County Down in the Later Middle Ages" in Lindsay Proudfoot (Editor), Down: History and Society, p. 117. Geography Publications, Dublin, 1997. The Uí Néill of Clandeboye maintained Belfast Castle as one of their main residences,Tom McNeill, "County Down in the Later Middle Ages" in Lindsay Proudfoot (Editor), Down: History and Society, p. 119. Geography Publications, Dublin, 1997. with the castle and its surrounding túath largely remaining in their hands throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a few brief exceptions.
The castle was briefly taken in 1476 by Éinri mac Eoghain Ó Néill (known in English as Henry O'Neill), Rí na Tír Eoghain (King of Tyrone), usually known during his lifetime as "the Great O'Neill", when he "attacked the castle of Belfast which he took and demolished". The rebuilt castle was again briefly seized from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye in 1489, this time by Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill I (Red Hugh O'Donnell I), Rí na Tír Chonaill (King of Tír Chonaill), an immensely powerful Gaelic ruler from the west of Ulster.Gillian Boyd and Fred Heatley, Belfast: Paintings and Stories from the City, p. 73. Cottage Publications, Donaghadee, County Down, 1998. Ó Domhnaill, whose chief residence was Donegal Castle in Donegal Town, had invaded Clandeboye with his army and "took and demolished the Castle of Belfast, and then returned safe to his house loaded with immense spoils".
In the early sixteenth-century, Belfast Castle was seized on three occasions by two senior-ranking members of the House of Kildare, part of the wider Geraldine dynasty. The castle was briefly occupied twice by the forces of The 8th Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland and the leading Geraldine at the time. Lord Kildare seized the castle and sacked Belfast in 1503 and again in 1512. His son and heir, The 9th Earl of Kildare (often known as Gearóid Óg), also seized the castle, this time in 1523. Gearóid Óg, Lord Kildare, had succeeded his father as Lord Deputy of Ireland in September 1513, also succeeding his father as the Geraldine leader at the same time. After briefly taking Belfast Castle from Aodh Ó Néill (Hugh O'Neill), Lord of Clandeboye, in 1523, this Lord Kildare reported to King Henry VIII: "I brake a castell of his, called Belfast, and burned 24 myle of his country [sic]".
Belfast Castle was briefly occupied by English forces in 1552, when the castle was possibly rebuilt on the orders of Sir James Croft, who was serving as the Lord Deputy of Ireland at the time. Another occasion when Belfast Castle was briefly seized from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye was in the 1570s, when English forces, initially under the command of The 1st Earl of Essex, occupied the castle for a few years during the short-lived Enterprise of Ulster.
During the Nine Years' War in the 1590s, English forces again occupied Belfast Castle, taking it over from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye. In June 1597, the forces of Shane McBrian O'Neill, the Lord of Lower Clandeboye and son of Sir Brian mac Feidhlimidh Ó Néill, attacked the castle and overpowered its English garrison, summarily executing all the prisoners that they captured. English forces, under the command of Sir John Chichester, soon marched north to retake Belfast Castle from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye, which they did in July 1597. Chichester reported back to his superiors that his forces had retaken the castle "without anie loss to us, and put those wee found in yt to the sworde [sic]". Chichester then placed Belfast Castle and its surrounding settlement under the command of Sir Ralph Lane, the Elizabethan adventurer. Lane, the then Muster Master-General, had previously served, over a decade earlier, as Governor of the ill-fated Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina.
Sir John Chichester, who had been appointed as Governor of Carrickfergus Castle, soon fell out with the previously neutral MacDonnells of the Glens. In a battle fought in November 1597 against the MacDonnells at Altfrackyn (also known as Aldfreck), a townland just north of Ballycarry, an English force was overpowered and suffered 180 men killed.Culture Northern Ireland: A History of Carrickfergus - Plantation. https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/history-carrickfergus Ruairí Ó Baoill, Hidden History Below Our Feet: The Archaeological Story of Belfast, p. 81 and p. 97. Northern Ireland Environment Agency (N.I.E.A.), Belfast, and Tandem Design, Holywood, County Down, 2011.Placenamesni.org: Aldfreck, County Antrim. http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=17038 Chichester was killed by the MacDonnells during or immediately after this battle, possibly by being beheaded.Culture Northern Ireland: The Chichester Family. https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/chichester-family Sir John Chichester was the fifth son of Sir John Chichester of North Devon, and he was the younger brother of The 1st Baron Chichester.
Clandeboye Massacre In October 1574, during the Enterprise of Ulster, The 1st Earl of Essex and his retinue were invited to a feast at Belfast Castle by Sir Brian mac Feidhlimidh Ó Néill (Sir Brian McPhelim O'Neill), Lord of Lower Clandeboye. The feast was to celebrate a newly signed peace agreement between the English Crown and Sir Brian. After three days and nights of feasting and celebrations inside Belfast Castle, the soldiers accompanying Lord Essex suddenly set upon and killed most of the family and retainers of Sir Brian inside the castle.Patrick McKay, "Leabhar Cloinne Aodha Buidhe: Bardic Poetry of the Ó Néills of Clandeboy" in John McGurk (Editor), Dúiche Néill - Journal of the O Neill Country Historical Society: Number 17 (2008), p. 139. The O Neill Country Historical Society, Dungannon, 2008 (printed by R. & S. Printers, Monaghan).Gillian Boyd and Fred Heatley, Belfast: Paintings and Stories from the City, p. 75. Cottage Publications, Donaghadee, County Down, 1998. It seems this massacre was ordered by Essex himself. This event is usually known as the Clandeboye Massacre. The castle was then seized by Essex and his forces. Sir Brian mac Feidhlimidh Ó Néill was not killed during this massacre. Instead, Sir Brian, along with his wife and his brother, were arrested by Lord Essex and, later in 1574, all three were executed in Dublin.Katharine Simms, "O'Neill of Clandeboye (Clann Aodha Buidhe)" in S.J. Connolly (Editor), The Oxford Companion to Irish History, p. 414. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998 (TSP paperback edition).
Plantation Castle