Antrim Castle, Castle ruins and gardens in Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Antrim Castle is a ruined castle site in the town of Antrim, Northern Ireland, set within a large area of formal gardens. What remains standing includes a stair tower from 1887 and twin neo-Tudor towers that once formed the gatehouse.
Sir Hugh Clotworthy, an English settler, built the castle between 1613 and 1662 as his family home. A fire gutted the main building in 1922, and what remained was pulled down in 1970.
The park displays an Anglo-Dutch garden design with straight canals, ponds, and tree-lined walks dating from the 1600s. Walking through today, you can still read how these formal patterns were laid out across the grounds.
The grounds are easy to walk through, with well-kept paths connecting the different garden areas in a clear layout. Clotworthy House inside the gardens offers visitor facilities and a Garden Heritage Exhibition, and Mann's Garden Kitchen is on hand for refreshments.
A mound of raised earth inside the grounds dates from the 12th century, predating the castle by several hundred years. This older layer shows the site was already in use long before the Clotworthy family arrived.
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