1841 Glenarm Castle Ireland hand-colored engraving Irish County Antrim Haunted

Description: Antique hand-colored engraving. " Glenarm " Drawn by William Henry Bartlett (1809 - 1854). Bartlett was a British traveler and artist. Engraved by Francis William Topham ( 1808 - 1877 ), a British watercolorist engraver. Born in Leeds, England, in 1808, Topham was apprenticed to his uncle who was a writing engraver. He moved to London in the early 1830s and began working as engraver for Fenner & Sears and then for J. S. Virtue ( engraving works after W. H. Barlett and other artists ). He first visited Ireland in the mid 1840s with fellow British artists Frederick Goodall and Alfred Fripp. His early watercolor works consisted chiefly of representations of Irish peasant life and studies also of Wales and its people. He paid a return visit to Ireland in the autumn of 1860. Published by Geo. Virtue , 26 Ivy Lane , London , England. Undated however this engraving was published in 1841. Glenarm Castle , Glenarm, County Antrim , Northern Ireland , as it was in the early 1800s. Figures and sheep on the road in the foreground. Glenarm Bay at the right. Also seen are buildings of Glenarm Village, the wall and barbican gate to the castle, tall stone church steeple , etc. Glenarm is the ancestral home of the Earl of Antrim. Attractively colored by hand with watercolor paints. Mat size is 11" x 14" Engraving sheet size is about 8" x 10 1/2" Image size is about 4 15/16" x 7 3/16" The engraving is over 180 years old. Nice condition. Carefully packed for shipment to the buyer. ------------- Glenarm Castle In the 5th to 7th centuries ( the beginning of the Early Christian period in Ireland ), Glenarm lay within the territory of the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Riada. For a time the area was under threat from the Vikings - who founded their only settlement of note in Ulster at " Ulfrek's fjord ", present-day Larne. According to Snorri Sturluson, the Icelandic historian, Connor , King of Ireland, defeated the raiding Orkney Vikings at "Ulfreksfjord" in 1018. Glenarm is one of Northern Ireland's oldest estates. There has been a castle at Glenarm since at least the 13th century, with evidence suggesting a fortification of some kind even earlier ( probably by the de Galloways ). The land was tenanted in the 1200s by John Bisset who acquired lands between Larne and Ballycastle from Hugh de Lacy, the Earl of Ulster. Bisset made Glenarm his capital. By 1260 a castle had been built at what is now the centre of the village ( on the site of the present Baptist church ), with along with a kitchen garden, an orchard and a mill, surrounded by woods and meadows. Glenarm was granted a charter in the 12th century , and claims to be the oldest town in Ulster. The old village courthouse still incorporates some of the original castle's walls ( in the 1970s a skeleton was discovered entombed within the wall ). In the year 1495 Con O'Donnell of Tirconnell marched on " MacEoin of the Glens ", as the Bisset chieftain was called, with the intent of taking his wife, and his horse and hounds, and of course, his lands. O'Donnell arrived under cover of darkness and captured it's lord and took his wife... and his horse and hounds as well. The last MacEoin Bisset was killed fighting the O'Donnells in 1522. Glenarm was then seized by the MacDonnells ( their former partners ) who occupied the Bisset's castle until they built the new one. After a long war with Elizabeth I of England, political intrigues and the flight of the Irish chiefs overseas at the start of the 17th century, the area was earmarked for plantation by settlers from Great Britain who, being Protestant, were thought more likely to be loyal to the English Crown. The castle standing today was built by Sir Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, in 1636, and it has remained in the family since its construction. It is currently owned by Randal McDonnell, 10th Earl of Antrim. The McDonnells have been in Glenarm for nearly 600 years and the Estate has been in the family for 400 years. Glenarm Castle is one of few Irish country estates that remains privately owned but open to the public. The castle is the private family home of the Earl and Countess of Antrim and their family, yet visitors are welcomed within Glenarm Castle itself for guided tours on selected dates throughout the year. The Castle's Walled Garden is open to the public between May and September and hosts many events. In July of every year the grounds are the site of a world-class Highland Games. The Dalriada Festival is also held at Glenarm Castle and within the local village, which celebrates sport, music and fine food from all over Scotland and Ireland. The castle also hosts traditional Ulster Scots cultural events. As part of the Dalriada Festival, Glenarm Castle has started to host large outdoor concerts. Summer Madness, Ireland's biggest Christian Festival, moved from its annual residence at the Kings Hall , Belfast , to Glenarm Castle in 2012. Glenarm village and castle has been a location for several films, including as a scenic background for the Game of Thrones series. --------- Ghosts Glenarm Castle also has a haunted history , as scenes of old violence and trauma sometimes do. The current castle was originally built in 1636, and has been subject to ruin and restoration due numerous fires throughout the centuries. The estate's multiple makeovers seemingly hasn't disrupted its ghostly residents, though ; there are records of ghosts going back to the mid 1800s. A guest staying at the castle in 1853 claimed to see the spirit of a tall woman in a short blue and brown petticoat, holding onto the strings of the frilly cap she wore. Another guest reported encountering the same figure two years later, again describing her as dazedly holding onto her cap's strings. Sightings of this ghost were reported as recently as the 1990s. Another ghost story is more chilling. Hector McDonnell, whose family has owned Glenarm Castle for 400 years, gave and interview to the Telegraph in the 1990s. He spoke of growing up on what he personally believed to be a haunted estate. He claimed that when he was a child in the 1950s-1960s, paranormal activity was so rife at the castle that his mother had an exorcism conducted in every room. When the exorcisms were conducted, the attic was overlooked - which was, perhaps, a mistake. Like a scene from a horror movie, loud noises began to come from the uncleansed attic after the rest of the castle's exorcism. McDonnell said that when he was but a boy of 12, a maid sent him up to the attic to investigate the sounds of stamping and banging. Braver than the maid, he turned on the lights at the bottom of the stairs, then headed up into the room overhead. When he got to the top step, the lights suddenly went out, leaving him frozen in the pitch dark. But he wasn't alone; McDonnell sensed some sort of presence near him in the blackness. Terrified, he fled the attic. There was no-one nearby who could've switched off the lights below. The noises were said to continue for several years after young McDonnell's attic encounter, but once was enough; he never investigated the sounds again. Later, in the 1970s, a skeleton was found buried inside the remains of the wall of the older 13th century castle at Glenarm. Local people believe that the ghosts of the estate could be the spirits of ancient victims of murder , still haunting the scene of their untimely deaths. We may never know.

Price: 39.53 USD

Location: Coventry, Rhode Island

End Time: 2025-01-12T12:26:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD