The story of Kinbane
Kinbane Castle was built around 1547 by Colla MacDonnell, younger brother of the famous Sorley Boy MacDonnell, during the height of the MacDonnell family's power along the Antrim coast. Colla chose the white-limestone headland as his base because it commanded both The Route on land and the sea lanes between the Scottish Isles and Antrim. The name comes from the Irish An Cionn Bán, meaning White Head, after the pale rock on which it stands.
The castle was caught up in the Tudor conquest almost at once. English forces under Sir James Croft, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, besieged it in 1551 during a campaign against the MacDonnells and partly destroyed it. Colla rebuilt the tower after the damage and held it as his stronghold.
Colla MacDonnell died at Kinbane in 1558, and his son Gillaspick inherited the castle. The site was reoccupied and traditionally used into the mid-18th century before falling into the ruin you see today.
Now in State Care and managed by the Department for Communities, Kinbane survives as the stump of a defensive tower with gun-loops on a wildly exposed point. It is one of the smaller and quieter ruins on the Causeway Coast, and much of its appeal is simply standing on the headland where the MacDonnells once watched the sea.