Glenarm is a small village on the Antrim coast, built around Glenarm Castle — the ancestral home of the MacDonnell family, Earls of Antrim, who took the property from the Bisset family in the early 16th century. The castle itself was built by Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, in 1636, and remains the family seat today.
The castle’s walled garden dates to the 1820s, created by Anne Catherine, Countess of Antrim, to supply the household with fruit and vegetables — at its Victorian peak it employed 15–20 gardeners. It’s been restored over the past two decades by the current Earl and Countess, with garden designer Catherine Fitzgerald, and is open to visitors alongside the castle grounds.
Village history
Glenarm’s own claim to fame predates the castle by centuries: a royal charter, traditionally dated to the 12th or 13th century, makes it one of the oldest chartered towns in Ulster. The restored Barbican Gate, the castle’s imposing entrance, still stands at the heart of the village.
The village’s church stands on the foundation of a Third Order Franciscan friary, built in 1465 by Sir Robert Bissett. Its most notable burial is a grim one: after Shane O’Neill was killed near Cushendun in 1567 in a confrontation with the MacDonnells, his headless body — his head was sent to Dublin Castle and displayed on a spike — is said to have been laid to rest here.