21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Clifftop castle with Scottish history that amazed public at The Open at Royal Portrush
The castle overlooks Royal Portrush Golf Club and featured in Game of Thrones.
The wild, windswept coastline of County Antrim offered a spectacular setting for The Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club at the weekend. US golfer Scottie Scheffler took home the iconic Claret Jug after comfortably winning the sport's oldest tournament.
But it wasn't just the action on the course that piqued the interest of sports fans, as the competition was played against a backdrop steeped in history and drama.
Reporting live on BBC Radio 5 Live on the second morning of the tournament, presenter Kat Downes painted a vivid picture for listeners as she described the eighth hole.
She said: 'On the eighth green, this par four that bends around a shelf in the sand dunes, it sits up above the seventh heading in the other direction back out towards the Giant's Causeway in the distance.
'You can see the ruins of Dunluce Castle, 13th century, perched up on the cliffs like something from the set of Game of Thrones.'
Indeed, the iconic ruin has long captured imaginations and was even featured in the hit HBO fantasy drama as the stronghold of House Greyjoy in Pyke on the Iron Islands.
Although digitally enhanced for the show with towering stacks, rope bridges and stone walkways, the real Dunluce Castle needs no visual effects to make an impression.
Built in the 13th century atop a basalt outcrop with sheer cliffs plunging into the Atlantic on all sides, Dunluce is linked to the mainland by a narrow bridge. Its dramatic location and storied past rival any fictional setting.
The castle was originally held by the McQuillan family, lords of a medieval territory known as 'the Route'. Later, it passed into the hands of the Lords of the Isles and eventually to the powerful Scottish clans MacDonald of Dunnyveg and MacDonnell of Antrim, descendants of John Mor MacDonald, great-grandson of Robert the Bruce.
In 1584, the formidable Somhairle Buíodh MacDonnell, also known as Sorley Boy MacDonnell or Somerled of the Yellow Hair, seized the castle and surrounding lands.
After pledging loyalty to Elizabeth I, he was confirmed as the first Earl of Antrim by King James I and VI. Sorley Boy remodelled the fortress in the Scottish style, establishing it as a seat of power.
In 1588, one of the Spanish Armada's ships was wrecked nearby. The castle's gatehouse was later equipped with cannons salvaged from the vessel, and its cargo was sold to fund further restoration efforts.
Throughout the turbulent 17th century, the Catholic MacDonnells played an active role in British and Irish conflicts. After the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, however, the family's fortunes declined, and Dunluce began its slow descent into ruin.
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Beneath its crumbling remains lies a darker history. In 2011, archaeologists uncovered the lost town of Dunluce, once a thriving settlement of streets and homes destroyed during the Irish uprising of 1641. It had remained buried for centuries.
Over time, the castle has inspired artists, writers and musicians alike. It is widely believed to have influenced CS Lewis in his creation of Cair Paravel in The Chronicles of Narnia .
In 1973, a panoramic image of the castle featured in the inner sleeve of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy album, accompanied by the eerie cover shot of naked children climbing the nearby Giant's Causeway.
More recently, Dunluce Castle returned to the international stage in July 2024 when it hosted the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Athletes hurled themselves from the surrounding 20 metre cliffs into the chilly Atlantic waters below, adding another chapter to the site's ever-evolving legacy.
