Kilwaughter is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

, near the town of

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...

. It is in an electoral ward situated within the

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is a local authority that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaced Ballymena Borough Council, Carrickfergus Borough Council and Larne Borough Council. History On 2 December 2021, the councils chief exe ...

area. Kilwaughter is a rural village or

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

. Kilwaughter is the home of Kilwaughter Castle, built by John Nash between 1803 and 1807, for the Agnew family. Located on the site of an older 17th century tower, the castle is situated in the hills, about 3 miles Southwest of

. Seized by the government during WWII, Kilwaughter Castle was used to house soldiers in the 1940s. These soldiers were members of the American 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion and based here during preparations for the

D-Day Landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. The castle remained uninhabited from that time and fell into disrepair - with collapsed floors and a collapsed roof. It is 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". In addition to the still imposing castle, the landscape around Kilwaughter now finds itself marked by industry with a number of quarries operating in the local area.

References

Villages in County Antrim {{Antrim-geo-stub

See also

References