Randalstown
named in 1667 for Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim, on his marriage to Rose O'Neill of Shane's Castle; the place was earlier An Dún Mór, 'the great fort', and then 'Iron Mills'
A small town between Antrim and Toome, beside Lough Neagh and the Shane's Castle estate, with a seven-arched railway viaduct of 1855 over the River Main. It has had three names: Dunmore, after a medieval fort, then Iron Mills, and from 1667 Randalstown. The Ulster Directory met at McClean's Inn here on 1 February 1798 to prepare the rising in Antrim.
The townland was first An Dún Mór, 'the great fort', after a motte-and-bailey built by the Irish on the River Main, and the O'Neills of Clannaboy built Edenduffcarrick, later Shane's Castle, nearby in the 14th century. From at least the 1650s the town was called Iron Mills, until it became a free borough in 1667 and was renamed for the marriage of Randal MacDonnell and Rose O'Neill. On 1 February 1798 the Ulster Directory met at McClean's Inn to prepare the revolt. Dunmore Park was a training camp for the Ulster Volunteers in the Home Rule crisis. James Webb founded the Old Bleach Linen Company in 1864, and the last factory on the site closed in 2002. An IRA car bomb hit the police station in 1989.
Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Randalstown ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Shane's Castle · castle · 3 km
- Antrim Castle · castle · 6 km
Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.
- Lough Neagh — the flung sod · Fionn scooped up a clod of earth to throw at a Scottish giant; the hole filled with water (Lough Neagh) and the clod landed in the sea (the Isle of Man).
All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.
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