Town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Ballycastle
A seaside town where people swap a hammer-smashed slab of honeycomb toffee for a bag of chewy seaweed, and where Marconi once sent radio messages across the sea.
Key information
- County
- County Antrim
- Nation
- Northern Ireland
- Known for
- The Ould Lammas Fair, Rathlin Island ferry, Marconi's wireless experiments, Bonamargy Friary
- Famous people
- Guglielmo Marconi, Sorley Boy MacDonnell, Hugh Boyd, Robert the Bruce
About Ballycastle
Yellowman, dulse and the fair that won't quit
Every year on the last Monday and Tuesday of August, Ballycastle fills with stalls, horse dealers, farmers and day-trippers for the Ould Lammas Fair. It is one of the oldest traditional fairs in Ireland, and it began as a harvest gathering around Lammas, the old festival on 1 August. The two snacks everyone talks about are dulse, a salty dried seaweed, and yellowman, a chewy golden honeycomb toffee that stallholders traditionally break up with a small hammer. Yellowman is so tied to the fair that a famous folk song about it is still sung across Ulster. The word "Ould" is the Ulster-Scots way of saying old. Locals use it with a lot of affection.
The day radio crossed the sea
In 1898 Guglielmo Marconi came to Ballycastle with a problem to solve. Lloyd's of London wanted a way to report ships passing Rathlin Island without waiting for a boat to bring the news. Marconi's mainland wireless station was on Ballycastle's seafront, near the harbour, and it communicated with a second station at the East Lighthouse on Rathlin. Messages travelled between them without a wire. It was an early commercial use of wireless across water, and it helped show that his invention was more than a laboratory trick. The experiment is remembered in the town today, and Rathlin's lighthouse still stands as part of that story.
A friary, a Black Nun and a clan chief
On the edge of town stand the ruins of Bonamargy Friary, a Franciscan house founded around 1500. It later became the burial place of the MacDonnells of Antrim, one of the great Gaelic-Scottish families of the Glens. Sorley Boy MacDonnell, the clan's famous warrior chief, is traditionally said to lie there. The friary also has a resident ghost story. Local legend tells of the Black Nun, said to be Julia MacQuillan, who lived here as a hermit. People say her spirit still walks the ruins, and she is reputed to have been buried at the entrance so that everyone would step over her grave. The friary is a short walk from the seafront, which is why it makes such a good first stop.
The town that mined coal by the sea
Ballycastle's industrial past surprises visitors. In the 18th century Hugh Boyd poured money into the area, building a harbour and developing coal mining, glassmaking and salt production. The coalfield was one of the few in Ireland. The harbour still shapes the town. Later a narrow-gauge railway linked Ballycastle with Ballymoney, opening in 1880 and closing in 1950, and it is remembered by older residents. The town today is split into two parts, the upper town around the Diamond and the lower seafront. The two are linked by a short, sloping main street.
Cliffs, islands and Scotland on the horizon
Ballycastle sits where the Glens of Antrim meet the north coast. To the east, Fair Head rises as a huge cliff with views out across the Sea of Moyle. Murlough Bay below it is a quiet, wild spot of green slopes and old stone ruins. Offshore lies Rathlin Island, reached by ferry from the harbour and loved for its seabirds, including puffins in summer. Robert the Bruce is said to have taken refuge there, with the spider legend attached to his time on the island. On a clear day you can see Scotland's Mull of Kintyre from the seafront. The Sea of Moyle also features in Irish myth: the Children of Lir were cursed to spend centuries as swans on its waters.
Hurling country
North Antrim is a hurling stronghold, and Ballycastle is part of it. The local club, Ballycastle McQuillans, carries the name of the medieval family who once held the area before the MacDonnells took over. The town is also a base for walkers, with the Moyle Way and coastal paths heading out in both directions. Nearby are Carrick-a-Rede's rope bridge and the Giant's Causeway, so Ballycastle often serves as a base for exploring the whole coast.