Heading past Belfast's northern suburbs, the A2 skirts the edge of Belfast Lough before reaching CARRICKFERGUS , an unremarkable seaside town (though with a recent reputation for Loyalist violence) whose seafront is dominated by its only real point of interest, Carrickfergus Castle (April-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 2-6pm; July & Aug opens at noon on Sun; Oct-March Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 2-4pm; £2.70), one of the earliest and largest of Irish castles. Built on a rocky promontory above the harbour around 1180 by the Anglo-Norman invader John de Courcy (and garrisoned until 1928), it reflects the defensive history of this entire region. In 1315, it endured a year's siege before falling to the combined forces of Robert and Edward Bruce, after which it was retaken and held by the English for most of the next three centuries. In 1760, the castle was overwhelmed by a French force and hurriedly recaptured; and, in 1778, the American privateer, John Paul Jones, fought a successful battle with the British vessel HMS Drake - this was America's first naval victory, and the story runs that Belfast citizens (most of the Protestants were sympathetic to the American Revolution) rushed out to cheer the victors. The castle has now been restored and is peopled with alarming life-size figures plucked from various moments of its history - including King John in the garderobe. You can buy a joint ticket (£4.85) for the castle and a trip on the Knight Ride (April-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-5.30pm, Sun noon-5.30pm; Oct-March same days till 4.30pm; £2.70), a short walk away in the Heritage Plaza on Antrim Street . A monorail journey in a huge Norman helmet through Carrickfergus history from 581 AD when noble Fergus was shipwrecked on a rock ( carrick) , the ride bombards you with sound, smells and sights. A smell of another kind hits you at the Gasworks Museum (June-Aug Sun 2-5pm; £1.50), on Irish Quarter West, the only complete Victorian coal-fired gasworks in Ireland, lovingly restored by local enthusiasts, which helped to power the town's lighting, including the surviving Big Lamp at the end of the High Street.
Otherwise, Carrickfergus and its environs claim plenty of literary associations , though not all of them are tangible: the Restoration dramatist William Congreve lived in the castle as a young child (his father was a soldier); Jonathan Swift's first sinecure was at Kilroot, just outside Carrickfergus, where, between 1694 and 1696, he wrote The Tale of a Tub . The chemicals firm ICI bought the land and levelled Swift's thatched cottage in the 1960s; they have since moved on. Poet Louis MacNeice (1907-63) spent a miserable childhood in Carrickfergus; he says sourly of the town: "The Scotch Quarter was a line of residential houses / But the Irish Quarter was a slum for the blind and halt" ( Carrickfergus , 1937). The Protestant son of a local Home Rule cleric, MacNeice was repelled equally by Orange bigotry and the complacency found in the Republic. Although he was educated in England, where he became associated with the Auden-led left-wing poets of the 1930s, his upbringing indelibly tinged his poetry and character. In Valediction (1934), he explored his ambiguous feelings towards his roots: "I can say Ireland is hooey& But I cannot deny my past to which myself is wed / The woven figure cannot undo its thread." The rectory on North Road - from which his mother was committed to an asylum - no longer stands. Instead the MacNeice Fold on the same spot offers sheltered accommodation and a plaque on its walls proclaims the connection. In the town centre overlooking Market Place, the Church of St Nicholas , patron saint of mariners and children, where MacNeice's father ministered (open mornings only), was built by John de Courcy in 1205 - like many of the castles and historic buildings hereabouts - but extensively reworked in 1614. Some interesting features set it apart: a leper's window, a "skew", or crooked aisle, symbolizing Christ's head on the cross falling to the right and, in the porch, a Williamite bomb fired in 1689.
Still, none of these claims to fame is as tenuous as that of the connection with the American president Andrew Jackson, whose parents emigrated from Carrickfergus in 1765. The Andrew Jackson Centre (April, May & Oct Mon-Fri 10am-1pm & 2-4pm, Sat & Sun 2-4pm; June-Sept Mon-Fri 10am-1pm & 2-6pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm; £1.20), two miles north of Carrickfergus on the Larne Road, isn't even their home, but a reconstruction of an eighteenth-century thatched cottage, with a little museum. Next door is something slightly more substantial - the US Rangers' Centre (same hours and ticket), which celebrates the formation of the first Battalions of this American Commando force in 1942 from US troops based in the North and trained at Carrickfergus.
One reason to give Carrickfergus a little more time might be the annual fair , Lughnasa , which is tackily medieval - with wrestlers, archers, minstrels and people dressed up as monks - but great fun nonetheless. It's held at the end of July; check the dates with the tourist office at the Heritage Plaza on Antrim Street (April-Sept Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat 10am-6pm; July & Aug also Sun noon-6pm; Oct-March Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tel 028/9336 6455).
If you do want to stay , there's a scattering of hotels around, including the central, family-run Dobbins Inn Hotel , 6 High St (tel 028/9335 1905; www.dobbinshotel.co.uk ; £55-70) and the Mediterranean-style Quality Hotel , 75 Belfast Rd (tel 028/9336 4556; £70-90), while for B&B there's Langasgarden on the seafront at 72 Scotch Gardens (tel 028/9336 6359; £33-40) or The Tramway House , 95 Irish Quarter South (tel 028/9335 5639; £33-40), a Victorian town house opposite the Marina. The hotels offer the best eating options, though other good bets include Chandler's Wine Bar , 13 High St, for reasonably priced European cuisine and there's a plethora of cafés, fast-food outlets and inexpensive Chinese and Indian restaurants. This is also golf and fishing country. Carrickfergus Golf Club (tel 028/9336 3713), on North Road west of the town centre, is an eighteen-hole parkland course with great views to Scotland and over the Mourne Mountains. Whitehead Golf Club (tel 028/9335 3792), half a mile north of town at McCrea's Brae, also offers distracting views and a challenging course over varied terrain. If you want to go fishing, you can rent boats at Carrickfergus or fish off the rocks and piers along the coast.
