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The area of North Antrim is generically associated with several legends of Ireland, perhaps due to the fact that man first settled and colonised this land 10,000 years at Whitepark Bay and Mountsandal on the river Bann.
'Deidre' or 'The Lamentable Fate of the Sons of Uishneach' tells the story of Deidre fleeing with the sons of Uishneach from Conovar, the King of Ulster, who wanted to marry her against her will, she came ashore on a causeway of basalt known as Carrig-Uishneach, which extends out into the sea between Ballycastle and Fair Head. Another famous legend 'The Children of Lir' tells of the four children of Lir being turned into swans by their stepmother and exiled to spend 900 years roaming three different parts of Ireland, part of this time was spent on the ' Cold Seas of Moyle'. Local tradition tells of them sheltering in the Margie river from winter storms. Ballycastle is also famed far and wide for the Oul Lammas Fair which takes place on the last Monday and Tuesday in August and brings thousands of people from all over the world. Another famous link to Ballycastle came when George Kemp, an assistant of Guglielmo Marconi arrived in 1898 to carry out 'wireless telegraph' transmissions between Rathlin Island and Ballycastle, the work were commissioned by Lloyds of London who where keen to employ this new found technology in tracking trans Atlantic shipping. |