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Carrickfergus Castle
St. Nicholas's Church
St Patrick
Carrickfergus Castle~ CARRICKFERGUS ~
~ Carrickfergus ~
Carrickfergus was a thriving town when Belfast was a sandbank. When Henry II was king of England, and the Norman, John de Courcy had overthrown the kings of the north of Ireland and established his rule from Carlingford Lough up the east coast as far as Fair Head. In 1180 he built a massive keep to guard the approach to Belfast Lough at Carrickfergus the first real Irish castle. In the early 17th century, Carrickfergus was the only place in the north where English was spoken; Gaelic was still the language of Ulster.
I spent some time with a friend who's family owned an excellent 18 hole golf course in Carrickfergus situated on the east coast of Northern Ireland. It is a medieval town about 9 miles north of Belfast on the edge of Belfast Lough and has about 35,000 inhabitants, around 16 pubs, 4 hotels, 9 clubs, a tourist monorail history ride called 'The Knight Ride', and a big castle. It has been a number of years now since I was here, but here are some of the places I visited.
