The town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, on the northern bank of Belfast Lough, is home to Carrickfergus Castle, a Norman fortress in Northern Ireland. The fortress, which was repeatedly besieged by the Scottish, native Irish, English and French, served a significant military function up to 1928 and is still among best-preserved prototypes of a mediaeval buildings in Northern Ireland. Due to the prior presence of water around three-fourth of the circumference of the castle, it had a strategic purpose. Today, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency looks after it as a state-owned historical monument. After conquering eastern Ulster, John de Courcy established Carrickfergus as his headquarters in 1177. He reigned as a minor king there till 1204, when he was overthrown by another Norman explorer named Hugh de Lacy. De Courcy primarily founded the inner ward, a tiny bailey at the tip of the headland with an east gate and a tall polygonal curtain wall. The great hall was one of many structures there. The castle controlled Carrickfergus Bay and the land accesses into the walled town that grew underneath it from its commanding position on a rocky headland, which was first almost completely encircled by sea. Because of its beautiful Romanesque double window frame, a chamber on the first level of the east tower is thought to have housed the chapel of the castle. The castle continued to serve as the primary residence and governmental hub for the Crown in the north of Ireland even after the Earldom of Ulster was abolished in 1333. Upgrades were made to allow for artillery during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as outwardly spread gunports and cannon embrasures. French invaders under Francois Thurot took control of the town in 1760 after severe battle inside it. They ransacked the town and castle before fleeing, only to be apprehended by the Royal Navy. It was continually garrisoned for roughly 750 years until 1928, when the British Army handed control to the nascent Northern Ireland government for conservation as a historical monument. [Information and Image Credit : Carrickfergus_Castle, Wikipedia] [Image : An 18th century depiction of the castle] [The Work (Image) is in the Public Domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer; Image-Author : Nicolas Ozanne (1728-1811); The Image is in Public Domain in the United States as well (Please Relate Source-Image URL for more Usage Property] [Source-Image-URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vue_de_Carrickfergus_en_Irlande_fin_XVIIIeme_siecle.jpg ] #Architecture
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