Thursday Doors – Antrim Castle Gardens

Thursday Doors is fast becoming a family affair as this week’s photos were contributed by my grandson Lukas which he took on a recent visit to Antrim Castle Gardens. He found a colourful mosaic while he was there.

The statue of a dog to the left of the above image has an interesting story attached to it.

In 1607, not long after she married Sir Hugh Clotworthy, the daughter of Sir Roger Langford, Lady Marian, was standing by the water’s edge on the shores of Lough Neagh when a growl came from behind her. Turning around she was confronted by a huge wolf, ready to pounce, and this caused her to faint. Just in time, an Irish wolfhound came to her rescue and when the young woman woke up from her swoon she was relieved to see her attacker dead. Unfortunately, the wolfhound was badly injured so Marian took the brave dog back to her home at Antrim Castle and nursed it back to health. Once the animal had made a decent recovery, it disappeared.

However, some years later a wolfhound was heard baying during a storm and the castle wardens lit a large fire to see what was going on. They were shocked to discover their enemies gathering close by getting ready to attack. Only one shot was fired from the castle but it was enough to disperse the enemy and at dawn, the stone statue of the wolfhound was discovered on the highest turret. Historians have said that Sir Hugh went to a lot of trouble to make a mystery out of the appearance of the statue and over the four centuries since it was formed, it’s been moved a few times. It looks to me to be in pretty good condition for its age.

Dan has lots of links to interesting doors over on his blog this week. Thank you Lukas for your contribution to this week’s Thursday Doors from Antrim Castle Gardens.