Castle

Dunseverick castle ruins

Dunseverick castle ruins
This way to Dunsverick Castle

Last April, I took a beautiful day trip excursion to the Giant’s Causeway with my friend Jacqui and her long time friend, Liz to see the coast of Northern Ireland. I happened to have a map with us (let’s just say we had an adventure in getting there because the GPS ran out of battery) and we ended up taking the scenic route on the way up. One there, we saw the Giant’s Causeway, and decided to pause for the other very close by sites. I would have to say that the most unimpressive site was the castle ruins at Dunsverick Castle.

Dunseverick castle ruins

Basically, this castle was built originally sometime around 1525 BC. Surrounded by the ocean on three sides,Dunseverick was a key ancient site in Ireland, one of the royal roads from Tara, seat of the Kings of Ireland ended here. The site was originally founded by Sobairce, one of the Kings who built a fortress here to rule the ancient Kingdom of Dariada, the location is named after him – Dunsobairce (Fortress of Sobairce) now Dunseverick. Around 500 AD, St. Patrick visited the location, and around 900 AD, the Vikings are said to have raided the fortress extensively. Sometime around the 1500’s AD, a small fortress with round tower was built on the spit of land, and these are the remains that are there today. (There are also sheep, who apparently are great climbers down one steep drop and up to the top of that spit of land…)

Dunseverick castle ruins
All that remains of a once impressive fortress… time and tide wait for no man…

You can see more photos on the Giant’s Causeway flickr set here.

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DunLuce Castle Ruins

DunLuce-from-ridge

Just before sunset, back in April, as part of our day trip around Northern Ireland, Jacqui, Liz and I popped along the coast road in the hopes of making it up to DunLuce castle ruins. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cliff face castles that spans its own small island and then connects to the mainland by a bridge and dual gatehouses. I have to say that it was great for photographs, and because of the “Sweet light” hours that we made it, we got some neat shadow pictures too.

DunLuce-hilltop

The first castle was built on the site sometime in the 1200’s, high up on the cliffs on the coast. Prior to this, there may have been an ancient fort here as well. The remnants of which can be seen in the two round towers, 30 foot in diameter.

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The first documented castle on the site was built in 1513, by the McQuillin family, using the remains of prior structures. It was updated in 1584, after a change of hands to Scottish lords, to the latest Scottish styles, adding the gatehouses and separate kitchens.

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According to a history, sometime after 1584, part of the cliff face collapsed into the sea and took down the kitchen buildings with it. Supposedly, only one lucky kitchen boy survived – because he was sitting in the corner of the kitchen which remained. At that time, the wife of the owner declared she would no longer live there.

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Sometime after 1690, the family owners lost their funds and the castle fell into disrepair.

Today, the castle is a privately owned tourist site, where you can walk around parts of the old castle grounds and down a steep set of stairs to look up at the castle above. Under the castle is a water carved cave (smugglers cove anyone)

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and a neat archway which allows for some great sunset silhouettes (and shadows.)

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For a virtual tour, please see:

www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/places/monuments/dunluce.shtml

To see more of my flickr set of DunLuce, please click here.

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Berg Falkenstein

Continuing with some posts of pictures that I’ve finally processed – and which are from 2010. The latest set is from Berg Falkenstein, Germany back in May of 2010.

Falkenstein

Falkenstein is a town in the Harz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the northeastern edge of the Harz, approx. 10 km west of Aschersleben. The town was created in 2002 by merging the town Ermsleben with 6 other municipalities. It was named after nearby Falkenstein Castle, about 5 km to the southwest.

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The castle here is now abandoned and has been restored for tourist use only. The most basic castle here was built as a defensive fortification sometime around 1120. The present day castle was built between 1500 – 1700 but was designed to protect the majority of the medieval character of the original buildings. It was recently restored and contains a registrar’s office for weddings, a throne room, knight’s hall, a fully functional “old” kitchen, and a delightful underground chapel with a small cabinet organ that still works. Additionally, there is a proper falconry on the grounds which is actually still in use and tourists can see the birds between March and October.

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You can see more of the set on my flickr site here.

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