Each of the three Points of Rathlin is served by a Lighthouse
The East Lighthouse on Rathlin has attracted famous visitors in past times, Guglielmo Marconi was contracted by Lloyd's Insurers to install a wireless link which would permitted swift announcements of successful trans-Atlantic crossings by Lloyd's ships. On July 6th 1898 Marconi and his associates successfully transmitted the first commercial radio signals across water from Rathlin's East Lighthouse to Ballycastle on the Northern Irish mainland. There is a commemorative plaque at the harbour .
The Ferry to Rathlin from Ballycastle
Dunluce Castle
The castle appeared on the artwork of Led Zeppelin’s 1973 LP Houses Of The Holy.The castle was originally built in 1500 by the McQuillans, who came from Scotland in the 1200s as hired mercenaries, and built the castle around 200 years later.
Dunluce Castle between 1890 and 1900
Kenneth Allen , via Wikimedia Commons
Image with Thanks Stewart 2007
The castle was built in the mid 1170s, mainly as a very visible demonstration of the Normans' military might.
Carrickfergus Castle is a Norman castle in the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough . Carrickfergus was built by John de Courcy in 1177 as his headquarters, after he conquered eastern Ulster in 1177 and ruled as a petty king until 1204, when he was ousted by another Norman adventurer, Hugh de Lacy. Initially de Courcy built the inner ward, a small bailey at the end of the promontory with a high polygonal curtain wall and east gate.Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French, the castle played an important military role until 1928 and remains one of the best preserved medieval structures in Ireland. It was strategically useful giving full views of activity in Belfast Lough and having 3/4 of the castle perimeter surrounded by water ( in modern times only 1/3 is surrounded by water due to land reclamation)
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