75 Castle Street
Ballycastle
BT54 6AS

[Photo: Antrim Arms Hotel, Ballycastle.]

Over 200 years ago, the leading figure in the town of Ballycastle was Alexander Boyd, the grandson of colonel Hugh Boyd whose family owned the property on which the town stood. The Boyds were nothing if not energetic, and were responsible for most of the activity in the area including glassworks, saltmines, brickworks, the pier, the Church of Ease, and the Manor House down at the harbour, the building used today as a Residential Home. The Antrim Arms was purpose built as a hostelry for the gentry to meet, and across the street about the same time, was erected the Boyd Arms Hotel for the holsters, coach-drivers, attendants and similar lower orders. The building was leased to a local surgeon, one Robert McCarroll, and written into the deeds was the stipulation that the Hotel should be allowed to display Lord Antrim’s Coat-of-Arms.

A bill on the wall shows that in 1888 its proprietor, Robert Hunter, provided carriages, waggonettes and cars at shortest notice. English upper classes frequently visited the Giant’s Causeway at this time, and the Antrim Arms was a most convenient stopping point.

The construction of the Royal Military Road in 1833 had already made the Inn a necessity, although at that time one chaise, a large four-wheeled car and twelve outside cars were kept for hire at a much cheaper rate than the one levied fifty years later – one shilling per mile for the chaise, and seven to eight pence per mile for the cars.

One very famous and frequent visitor to the Antrim Arms was Marconi with his assistant Kemps, who stayed there for fairly long periods. There’s a lovely old 1897 photo of the hotel framed on the wall, showing the Belfast and Dublin Field Club members arranged outside, prior to a ramble over to the Giants Causeway. Todays owner, Pat Shannon, is a lady who carries on the two hundred year old tradition of hospitality, comfort and uniquely Irish friendliness.

The Antrim Arms served the trans-Atlantic sailing packet that berthed where the tennis courts now are.