
Carnlough village is beautifully situated on the famous Antrim Coast Road (A42), 14 miles north of Larne, Co.Antrim, Northern Ireland. It boasts a magnificent backdrop – Glencloy – the second of the Nine Glens of Antrim – the ‘Glen of the hedges’. There are many local tales of how the village got its name but the most popular relates to Ireland’s patron saint. Local legend has it that St. Patrick founded a Christian group in the area and that one of his disciples, La, was left in charge of the new converts. Unfortunately, under La’s leadership the converts gradually returned to their pagan ways and on Patrick’s return, La was so overcome by remorse that he chopped off his hand and buried it beneath a memorial cairn – hence Cairn of La. The Cairn is believed to have been built on the site of the present Carnlough Integrated Primary School, opposite the Londonderry Arms Hotel.
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A Brief History… |
It is believed that the first settlers in Glencloy were primitive hunters and fishermen who arrived in the valley around 6000 BC. These first residents of Carnlough were attracted to the area by an abundance of flint which they used for tools and weapons. The glen also provided a source of food such as deer, wild pig, hare, fox and wolf and the nearby sea allowed the settlers to hunt for fish and shell fish. The area around the modern village is scattered with numerous sites of archeological significance and bears testimony to the ancient history of the village and its people. Early visitors to the area included the Vikings and the Normans but it was in the 14th Century that the area came under the control of the warlike MacDonnells, mercenaries from the Western Isles of Scotland. The MacDonnell family continued to dominate the area and in the early 17th Century, in an attempt to improve relations with England, Randal MacDonnell, the first Earl of Antrim granted around 25 lowland Scots families leases in the glens area. This ‘plantation’ of the glens gave rise to the unique mixture of Irish and Scots-Irish heritage which the visitor can enjoy to this day. |
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