Mini Castle

Ballygally Castle was originally built in 1625 by James Shaw and his wife Isabella Brisbane. Scottish native Shaw came to Ireland in 1606 to seek his fortune. He received a sub-grant of land from the Earl of Antrim in 1613, and this is the land on which the castle was built. The castle’s original purpose was to serve as a refuge for Protestants during the Civil Wars. Ballygally’s last squire, William Shaw, inherited it in 1799 after it had been handed down through many generations of the family. In the early 1800s, the Agnew family acquired the estate after the Shaw family lost all of their wealth. It served as a coastguard station for several years before becoming the family home of Reverend Classon Porter and his family. Afterward, it was purchased by the Moore family who then sold it to a textile millionaire, Mr. Cyril Lord, who refurbished it into a hotel in the early 1950s.