Kilwaughter Castle, Co.Antrim, Northern Ireland, December 2018

[HughieD]

1. The History
Kilwaughter Castle was built by John Nash between 1803 and 1807, for the Agnew family, tax collectors for the County of Antrim. Located on the site of an older 17th century tower, the castle is situated in the hills, about 3 miles south-west of Larne. During World War I, wounded American officers were among those who found comfort at Kilwaughter Castle. By then the castle was the home of an American, Mrs. Elizabeth Galt Smith. Her family leased and refurbished the castle for over 30 years until 1922. During World War the castle was the property of the Italian Balzani family resulting in it being declared enemy territory. Hence it was seized by the government and used to house soldiers of the American 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion who were based at the castle during their preparations for the D-Day Landings. The castle remained uninhabited from that time on and fell into disrepair. Roofs collapsed and floors collapsed leaving it as an empty shell. It is now privately owned and not open to the public. As of 2017, a charitable trust was reportedly being formed to "stop further deterioration of the castle".

A couple of archive shots of the castle in its heyday:

kilwaughter_castle 02 by HughieDW, on Flickr

kilwaughter_castle 01 by HughieDW, on Flickr

2. The Explore
The first of a few reports from my recent trip to Northern Island. A pretty relaxed explore this. Access was easy and despite forming part of a ‘live’ farm, no one seemed too bothered by my presence. Was waiting of sunrise and the fact it was a cloudy day meant the light conditions were pretty limited. Internally it is very much a shell with little to see. Externally though, it’s a very photogenic place with some interesting architectural details.

3. The Pictures

img0089 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0087 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0082 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0080 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0079 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0077 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0074 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0073 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0068 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0063 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0061 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0057 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0048 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0047 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0045 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Kilwaughter 07 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Kilwaughter 06 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Kilwaughter 02 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Kilwaughter 01 by HughieDW, on Flickr

 

[smiler]

Nicely done Hughie, decent set of pics, I enjoyed them, Thanks.

 

[UrbandonedTeam]

Nice one man, love to do a trip to Ireland one day. Seems like a lot of the stuff there escapes urbex attention, most noticeable the asylums, compared to the ones in England at this time.

 

[HughieD]

Nicely done Hughie, decent set of pics, I enjoyed them, Thanks.

Cheers mate. Much appreciated.

Nice one man, love to do a trip to Ireland one day. Seems like a lot of the stuff there escapes urbex attention, most noticeable the asylums, compared to the ones in England at this time.

Very much so. Sadly didn't get to one of the asylums though was very near one at the airport. Well worth a visit. A lot of dereliction there...

 

[rockfordstone]

stunning building. another example of something taken over in WW2 and then left to ruin. i heard somewhere that something like a 3rd of stately homes, castles etc are now lost or derelict because of the damage that was done to them when they were taken for use by the military in WW2. very sad

 

[Sam Haltin]

A shame its gone this way. Looking at the before pictures it must have been nice in its day.

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

Sorry, but that is absolute rubbish. The only ones that were further stripped out by troops searching for fire wood, were properties that had been de-roofed prior to the Second World War starting - in an effort to escape Death Duties, because the heirs had been killed in WW1. Death Duties reared their ugly head again after WW2 and the wholesale roof removal scheme started all over again - because, once again heirs had been killed or gone missing in WW2 and the Government of the day were going to make the bereaved pay even more! I spent five years collating all the UK Country Estates that had been taken over by the Military in WW1 and WW2 - might get around to my original idea one day and publish the manuscript.