18 Facts About Belfast Castle

Belfast Castle is a castle on the slopes of Cavehill Country Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a prominent position 400 feet above sea level.

The main entrance into the Belfast Castle Demesne is where Innisfayle Park meets Downview Park West, just off the Antrim Road.

Medieval Belfast Castle was eventually seized by a branch of the powerful Ui Neill dynasty of the Cenel nEogain, probably at the end of the fourteenth-century or the beginning of the fifteenth century.

Belfast Castle was briefly seized by English forces in 1552, when the castle was possibly rebuilt on the orders of Sir James Croft, who was the Lord Deputy of Ireland at the time.

Sir John Chichester, who had been appointed as Governor of Carrickfergus Belfast Castle, soon fell out with the previously neutral MacDonnells of the Glens.

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Sir Arthur Chichester, one of the main architects of the Plantation of Ulster, had Belfast Castle largely rebuilt in the early 1610s, mainly in brick.

Belfast Castle settled at what became known as Donegall House, a large terraced house on the corner of what is Donegall Place and Donegall Square North, only a few hundred yards from the original site of Belfast Castle, right in the centre of the town of Belfast.

At that time, the Ormeau Demesne was on the south-eastern edge of Belfast Castle, being in Ballynafeigh on the County Down side of the River Lagan.

Belfast Castle was known as the Earl of Belfast, a courtesy title, between January 1799 and October 1844, when he succeeded his father in the marquessate.

Belfast Castle decided to build what has been described as a new 'princely mansion' for himself in the 1860s on what was then the northern edge of Belfast, just over a decade after the Great Famine had ended.

New Belfast Castle was built on what had been the Donegall family's deerpark on the slopes of Cave Hill, a location which was, at that time, on the northern outskirts of Belfast, just off the Antrim Road.

Belfast Castle had only succeeded his famous father in the earldom in October 1885.

Belfast Castle served as: Lord Lieutenant of Belfast from 1904 to 1911; Lord Lieutenant of Antrim from 1911 to 1916; and Chancellor of The Queen's University of Belfast from 1909 to 1923.

Lord Belfast Castle had died in Naples, aged 25, from scarlatina in February 1853.

The sculpture, which was originally located in the Chapel of the Resurrection, was carved in white marble, and it depicts the young Lord Belfast Castle lying on a sofa, dying from scarlatina, being mourned by his lace-capped mother, Lady Donegall.

Belfast Castle is open to the public daily with a visitor centre, antique shop, Millennium Herb Garden, restaurant, and a playground.

The new Belfast Castle was constructed in the late 1860s using pink Scrabo sandstone from near Newtownards in the north of County Down, along with Giffnock sandstone dressings from Renfrewshire and a rock-faced basalt plinth.

Belfast Castle was closed in 1978 for a restoration and refurbishing effort.