Last May Alan and I took a two-week driving tour of the British Isles with our youngest sons, Stephen and Joel, and then between May 24 and July 20th I started a series of travel blogs called R’n'Rs’n'B’nBs:Rambles and Reflections in Broadways and Byways of Britain. Life overpowered reflection, and I never finished the project, but I’m imagining a stretch of quiet now where I can resume recounting my rambles.
And so, I will take up where we left off, leaving the Giant’s Causeway behind and heading northwest along the North Sea in Ireland’s County Antrim on a cloudless morning in early May, 2011.
Our next stop was Dunluce Castle, purported to be C.S. Lewis’ inspiration for the castle in his classic children’s series about Narnia. (We visited many sites near and dear to the hearts of our British-lit-loving sons.)
Dunluce is the largest and most sophisticated castle ruins in the north, built originally by the Normans back in 1503 atop a 100-foot, basalt outcropping connected to the mainland by a gracefully arched bridge above “The Mermaids’ Cave.”
The castle was—like a beautiful woman—fought over and jealously guarded. During its 400 years as a power base in the north, it changed hands many times. 
Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, was the original builder, although by 1519 it belonged to the McQuillian Family, which was displaced by the MacDonald Clan in the 16th century, who were then ousted by Sorley Boy MacDonnell.
The stories of intrigue read like a novel… intermarriage with Scottish royalty… Sorley Boy and his men being hauled up the side of the cliff in baskets…the castle being restored with booty from the shipwreck of the Spanish Armada’s treasure ship Girona in 1588…
However, the most provocative story comes from the life of Sorley Boy’s son, Randal, who turned the castle into a luxurious utopia for his wife, complete with a beautiful kitchen overlooking the sea.
The couple loved to entertain until one day in 1639 when—as the tale is told—the entire kitchen broke off the house, plunging 100 feet into the sea below and killing all the kitchen staff.
It’s easy to empathize with the wife, who refused to live in the castle anymore, and so they moved inland, and the castle eventually fell into disrepair.
I was touched by reading the description given online in The Original Site of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board: “Today the pretty blue flower of Dunluce’ clusters round the castle’s ruined shell and drifts of seapinks are the only sentinels.”
And, that is exactly what we found on that beautiful May morning!
Hearing the story of the ruin of Dunluce Castle, I couldn’t help but think of the words of Matthew 7:24-27 where Jesus taught a parable concerning the wisdom of building our lives on the Rock, Jesus Christ. “Every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened to a foolish man…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
Earthly kingdoms will come and go, but God’s Kingdom of love and light will remain from generation to generation…forever!
“How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.”
Daniel 4:3
