Armoy

Armoy’s landmark is its round tower, standing beside St. Patrick’s Church on the site of an early monastery reputedly founded around 460 AD by St. Olcan, a disciple of St. Patrick himself — once the chief religious settlement in this corner of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata.

The tower itself was built in the 10th or 11th century and, at around 11 metres, is one of the shortest round towers in Ireland — round towers of this kind were built mainly as bell towers, doubling as secure storage for monastic valuables like books and holy relics. An 1843 excavation found the tower’s original conical stone capstone, along with a more macabre find: a severed human skull.

A second excavation, prompted by roadworks in 1997, uncovered a souterrain and stone passage dated to around 1000 AD, along with 56 burials beneath the church — including the severed feet of a leprosy victim, at least 400 years old and an unusual find, since lepers were not normally granted burial in consecrated church ground.

The village itself sits on the River Bush, a few miles inland from the coast on the way toward Ballycastle.

The Armoy Armada

Armoy has a second, very different claim to fame: motorcycle road racing. In 1977, four local riders — Joey Dunlop, his younger brother Jim, Mervyn Robinson, and Frank Kennedy — became known as the “Armoy Armada,” racing against a County Down rival group nicknamed the Dromara Destroyers. It was a brief, intense era: Kennedy was killed racing at the North West 200 in 1979, and Robinson died at the same event the following year. Joey Dunlop went on to become the most successful road racer in history, winning 26 Isle of Man TT races before his death in 2000.

The modern Armoy Road Races, first held in 2009, honour that legacy — the feature race is still called “The Race of Legends.” Held annually in July, the meeting has drawn top riders including Guy Martin and Michael and William Dunlop, Joey’s nephews.