i The Glens Of Antrim In Medieval Times ii iii Index Acknowledgements ................................................................................................1 Introduction ............................................................................................................2 Dál Riata ...................................................................................................................6 The Early Church ...................................................................................................10 Ringforts and Fortified Outcrops .......................................................................14 Vikings! ................................................................................................................... 18 The Anglo-Normans and the Glens of Antrim ................................................. 21 The Bissets and the Bruces .................................................................................27 Clann Eòin Mòr ......................................................................................................33 Further Reading ....................................................................................................39 Published by the Heart of the Glens Landscape Partnership Scheme with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. Language and Landscape Text by Colm Donnelly & Cormac McSparron. Representing otherness This book was published through a of ‘otherness’ presents challenges. academic work. Campbell, Fitzpatrick Printed by Impact Printing, Coleraine & Ballycastle. collaborative project called The Heart When dealing with identities of and Horning (2018) have employed of The Glens Landscape Partnership people and places, we thought of how a similar approach stating “the best © 2018 (HoGLPS), which has been kindly the personal and family names of course of action was to employ Irish funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund important historical characters could spellings for selected place-names, and managed through Causeway Coast be represented in a way that they people and titles that would originally and Glens Heritage Trust. Aspects of themselves would recognise. Many of have been spoken and recorded in Irish, our shared heritage, its interpretation the sources of Gaelic names used today rather than rely upon the, perhaps, and presentation have long been a are the now more familiar anglicized more familiar, but arguably less honest challenge on the island of Ireland, forms. Many of these sources were and certainly less accurate English especially when related to the use of written by English observers unfamiliar renderings”. Gaelic language. However, one of the and in some instances indifferent to In most cases, when the name is first themes of the HoGLPS was to look at the Gaelic language. Thus names were mentioned, if an English rendering projects that presented the ‘language often misheard, poorly understood and exists we have placed it in. Thereafter, of landscape’. HoGLPS have also misrepresented in a new way that was in many cases, the Gaelic form will be established, as a guiding principle, alien to those who held them. used. A glossary of pronunciation of that the landscape, as we relate to During the discussion phase of this the Gaelic forms of the names is also it, is in fact a ‘people-scape’. Almost book it was agreed that were possible provided using an English language everything in our landscape has been to employ Gaelic spellings to these phonetic spelling. impacted upon and by people and names, so that they are reconnected Campbell, E. Fitzpatrick E. and Horning community. It is well accepted that to their own sense of self, as the holder A. (2018) Becoming and belonging most of the place names and a vast of that name would have understood. in Ireland ADc. 1200 – 1600; Essays number of surnames are also of Gaelic There is in increasing precedent in identity and cultural practise, Cork in origin. How we represent this sense for this kind of approach amongst University Press, Ireland. iv 1 Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Friary and Kinbane Castle and in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology following individuals and for facilitating the permission for in 1861, while David Caldwell, organisations for all their their use in our publication. The formerly of the National Museum assistance during the production UAV image of Dunseverick Castle of Scotland, provided the images of of this booklet, commencing was kindly provided by David Craig the Scottish Grey Ware pottery and with Libby Mulqueeny, Illustrator of IrishSights, while the Friends Finlaggan. Finally, we would like to within the School of Natural and of Portencross Castle in North thank our friends Réamaí Mathers Built Environment at Queen’s Ayrshire generously allowed us and Laura McAuley in the Heart of University Belfast, who drew the to use Bob Marshall’s wonderful the Glens Landscape Partnership maps included in the text. We’d reconstruction drawing of a Scheme and Eileen McAuley and (Diùra) like to thank Tony Corey, Historic Hebridean galley. Our colleagues in Dominic O’Loan from the Glens Environment Division of the the Ulster Archaeological Society of Antrim Historical Society for all Department for Communities, for allowed us to use the illustration of their help and guidance over the (Ìle) his photographs of Bonamargy the Ardclinis Crozier, first published past four years. (Ceann Tíre) (Eilean Arainn) (Aontroim) 2 3 Introduction: In 1569 a dynastic double-marriage and Islay, Diùra (Jura) and Cinn covered in cattle hides, light and Having myself conversed with both (Oisín’s Grave, near Cushendall, The connection between Scotland took place on Rathlin Island. Tìre ( Kintyre) in Argyll, some 20 manoeuvrable. Glensmen and Arranmen, I can for example) show a great deal of and Ireland endured into the Local tradition holds that the miles away, and then to the south testify to the absolute identity of similarity to Scottish Chambered Bronze Age. The stone cist burials venue for the festivities was at the towards An Bhinn Mhór (Benmore) In the Late Medieval period their speech”. Tombs and it can be suggested discovered in Church Bay on Rathlin enclosure known as “The Castle” and Baile an Chaistil (Ballycastle), connections were further that very similar societies must Island, for example, are similar at Ballycarry. While the architect only 5 miles in the distance. facilitated by the introduction of In the period covered by our book, have existed on both sides of the to those to be found in western of the enterprise was Somhairle the galleys, the descendants of North Antrim and the Western Isles sea at this period. and central Scotland. Iron was Buidhe MacDomhnaill, Sorley Boy People in the Glens of Antrim were Viking vessels, clinker-built and formed a sea-province and Gaelic- introduced to Ireland in the period MacDonnell, who had been making relatively isolated from the rest of open-hulled, with tall prows and speaking cultural zone, reflected There was also a movement of raw around 600BC but while artefacts arrangements since the previous Ireland by the difficult terrain of the sterns, and steered by means of in the name of Argyll itself, Earra- materials and artefacts between made from this metal have been year when an English source Antrim Plateau on the west and a a stern rudder. The galleys were Ghàidheal, “the coast of the Gaels”. Ireland and Scotland which may discovered in Antrim, we have very reported that he had spent two high promontory in the Glenarm quick-moving, powered by sail This may have been the result of have represented trade and little settlement or burial evidence, days in the Glens “cutting wattles area to the south, a geographical and – when becalmed, in bays or an invasion of the region by Gaelic- exchange mechanisms at work. although the earthworks at Liosán to build in the Raghlins”, perhaps isolation that would only be broken on rivers – by oar. Lightweight yet speaking people from Irish Dál For example, Taobh Builleach Dubh (Lissanduff) in Port Bhaile to construct housing for the guests. by the construction of the coast tough, the galleys could readily Riata in the early centuries of the (Tievebullliagh), outside Cois an Tráigh (Portballintrae) and at road in the 1830s. Despite the be beached in a suitable coastal first millennium. Alternatively, it Abhann Dála ( Cushendall), and Coshcrib, near Cushendall may News of the weddings undoubtedly dangerous nature of the sea prior bay; they could even be carried may have been part of a gradual Brockley on Reachraidh (Rathlin) both be ritual sites associated with generated horror among the Tudor to that time, external contact overland. assimilation of the indigenous are the sources of a very fine this period. administrations in Dublin and had tended to focus on Islay and Pictish population into the Gaelic grained igneous rock called London, for these fourteen days of Kintyre. Communication was also world, with their adoption of a porcellanite which was used for Conversely, in Argyll we have a merriment represented the blood- facilitated well into the 19th century new language perhaps facilitated the manufacture of polished stone relative profusion of Iron Age connection of three major Gaelic A tradition that only fell out of use through the fact that the dialect through trade and exchange with axes. Porcellanite axes are most settlement sites with numerous lineages – MacDomhnaill, Ó Néill in recent times and one which was of Irish Gaelic spoken in the Glens the Gaels of Irish Dál Riata.