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| 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, shown above, 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 sketch, however, deals more with the village itself than with its surroundings. 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. These are connected by a finely arbored avenue. The upper town will be recognized in the picture, bu the lower town, or quay, lies chiefly along shore. In the neighborhood of Ballycastle there exists the largest coal bed, perhaps, in the northern provice of Ireland. That it is not better worked, and developed, is one of the mysteries of Irish economics. The principal cause of inactivity is said to be that English coal can be imported for less money than it would take to work the Irish fields. It is the result, Irish economists claim, of the absence of an embargo on British products. |
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