The ancient name of this fortress was Edan-dubh-Cairrge, meaning “the front or brow of the black rock.”
It is situated near the village of Randalstown, about two miles and a quarter north-west of Antrim. The present demesne, which extends for two miles along the northern shore of Lough Neagh, is bisected by the river Main.
The castle has not been inhabited since it was burnt down on the 15th of May, 1816. A large addition was being erected at the time, and it as well as the older buildings were all consumed. Only the beautiful conservatory and the fortified terrace escaped uninjured. Several turrets and towers still stand to indicate its former extent and grandeur.
A passage about a hundred yards in length runs underground from the castle to the adjacent graveyard, and was the servants’ entrance to the mansion. Connected with this are great vaults which were built at the same time as the conservatory and the rooms near, so as to raise the addition above the level of the Lough, and give the building a better frontage.
An old safe is still to be seen in one of the castle walls, and not far from it a curious figure-head, supposed by
some to have been brought from the East and to belong to a much earlier date than the ruins among which it stands. Tradition states that when it falls the family of O’Neill will come to an end.
It is recorded that in 1490 Edan-dubh-Cairrge, the castle of Niale, the son of Con, son of Hugh Boy, was taken and demolished by Felim, grandson of Niale Boy. It is probable that the present ruins are the remains of a castle which was erected in the sixteenth century upon the site of an older fortress, though the exact date of building is uncertain.
Edenduffcarrick belonged to the O’Neills of Clandaboy, and a younger branch of the great Tyrone family.
They were descendants of Hugh O’Neill, surnamed _buide_ or _boy_--yellow-haired, from which fact the district got its name.
In Queen Elizabeth’s reign Sir Brian MacPhelim O’Neill usurped the O’Neill estates with the help of the English, but they were shortly afterwards confiscated and bestowed by the Crown on Sir Thomas Smith.
In 1573 there is a memorandum by Secretary Smith offering to give up to the Earl of Essex upon certain conditions “Belfast, Massareen, Castle Mowbray _alias_ Eden Doucarg (now Edenduffcarrick or Shane’s castle, in the county of Antrim) and Castle Toome.”