CUSHENDUN

Like Cushendall, Cushendun, at the foot of Glendun, one of the nine Glens of Antrim, is classed as a “conservation village”, and as such is protected by the National Trust.  The name comes from the Irish Cois Abhann Duinne, which means “beside the River Dun”, the river that tumbles down from the valley of Glendun.  The village was planned in 1912 by Clough Williams-Ellis at the request of Baron Cushendun, and the Cornish appearance of the village is no accident, as Williams-Ellis designed it in this way to please the Baron’s wife Maud, who was from my home town of Penzance.  There is even a row of whitewashed cottages named after her. The village passed to the care of the National Trust in 1954.

Just to the north of the village is Castle Carra, thought to have been built in the 14^th century and now a ruin.  The castle was the scene of a series of shenanigans involving Shane O’Neill and the McDonnells, culminating in O’Neill being stabbed to death as revenge for his earlier defeat of the McDonnells.  Not content with this act of violence, they cut his head off and sent it to representatives of Queen Elizabeth in Dublin. 

Last, and by no means least, fans of the hit series Game of Thrones will want to include a visit to Cushendun Caves on a visit to the village.  The caves, formed from over 400 million years of weathering, appeared in the series as the background for the Stormlands, one of the nine constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms.  They can be reached by following the walk suggested via this link.  

Map of the area.

Cushendun Caves - geograph.org.uk - 467791. Photo by Anne Burgess, via Wikimedia Commons.