Qualla: Belfast Castle

Belfast Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 4.0. There have been several Belfast Castles, and none of them has lasted. The Norman original, probably near what is now Castle Place in the city center, was seized by the O'Neill dynasty in the fourteenth century and rebuilt as a Gaelic towerhouse. The Plantation-era castle, constructed in brick by Sir Arthur Chichester around 1610, burned down in 1708, killing three of the Earl of Donegall's sisters. The current building -- a Victorian country house that is not, strictly speaking, a castle at all -- sits four hundred feet up the slopes of Cave Hill, looking out over Belfast Lough. It is the most successful of the three, if only because it is still standing.

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Image: CC BY-SA 4.0

Belfast Castle: Conquest, Massacre, and Fire

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0. The medieval castle changed hands repeatedly as rival powers fought over Belfast. The Earls of Kildare seized it in 1503, 1512, and 1523. In October 1574, the 1st Earl of Essex was invited to a feast at the castle by Sir Brian McPhelim O'Neill, Lord of Lower Clandeboye. During th...

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Image: Ardfern | CC BY-SA 3.0

Belfast Castle: The Marquess Who Sold Belfast

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY 2.0. The 3rd Marquess of Donegall spent most of his life in England and sold off nearly all of his family's Belfast estate in the 1850s. Curiously, it was only after he no longer owned the city that he became interested in living there. In the 1860s, he commissioned a new residence on...

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Image: CC BY 2.0

Belfast Castle: The Shaftesburys and the Gift

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alicia Fagerving, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 3rd Marquess died in 1883 and the castle passed, through his daughter's marriage, to the Earls of Shaftesbury. The 9th Earl threw himself into Belfast public life, serving as Lord Mayor in 1907 and adding an elaborate Baroque stone staircase to the castle's garden facade in 1...

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Image: Alicia Fagerving | CC BY-SA 3.0

Belfast Castle: Cave Hill and the View That Inspired Rebellion

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Portwilliamborn, CC BY-SA 4.0. Belfast Castle's setting on Cave Hill is as significant as the building itself. The hill rises to 1,207 feet and its distinctive basalt cliff face -- known as Napoleon's Nose for its profile -- is one of Belfast's most recognizable natural landmarks. In 1795, Wolfe Tone and other...

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Image: Portwilliamborn | CC BY-SA 4.0