BALLYCASTLE, (UPPER TOWN), CO. ANTRIM. - Antrim possesses a number of clean, well-built small towns, peculiar to that section of Ulster. They have a modern air, and, were it not for the difference in architecture and building material, might easily pass for hamlets in busy New England.
Ballycastle is situated on the sea shore, not far from Fair Head. Above it rises the Hill of Knocklayd which has an altitude of about 1,700 feet and commands a noble and extensive view. The village itself than with its surroundings. The vicinity extending from Older-fleet / Larne along the sea-shore contained the Barony of Glenarm. In Dalriada, "the Glynns," near Shanes castle opposite "the Routes" of the MacDonnell baronies of Dunluce. A bold rock that reaches out to the seaway closes in on Giants Causeway with no shore.
The name signifies the Town of the Castle, so called because a former Earl of Antrim built here a kind of fortress in the early part of the reign of James I.
The castle has vanished from human ken, and on its site has been erected a handsome Episcopal church. The place is divided into two parts-the upper and the lower town. In the neighborhood of Ballycastle there exists the largest coal bed, perhaps, in the northern provice of Ireland. Its mysterious workings have inactivity for economics of principle cause; English coal can be imported for less than would it take to commission the Irish fields. Its sunken appearance puts the southend of the village near the shores.”