Carrickfergus Antiquities

The Franciscan monastery above noticed, as connected with the parish church, was founded in 1232, and became of so much importance that, in 1282, a general chapter of the whole order was convoked here: it stood within the walls of the town, and its site is at present occupied by the gaol for the county of Antrim. Immediately to the west of the town was the Premonstratensian priory of Goodburn or Woodburn, on the western bank of that stream; it was dedicated to the Holy Cross, and its foundation is attributed to a member of the family of Bisset, which quitted Scotland about the year 1242, in consequence of the murder of the Duke of Athol. Adjoining the eastern suburb was the hospital of St. Bridget, said to have been founded for the reception of lepers; the lands adjoining the site are still called the Spital parks. To the north of the town a well, now called Bridewell, marks the site of another hospital dedicated to St. Bridget. Several silver coins, of the reign of Henry II., have been found about the castle. There are numerous barrows or tumuli scattered over the face of the county of the town, of which some have been opened and found to contain rude urns, ashes, and human bones; the largest of these, which are chiefly sepulchral, is called Duncrue, or the "fortress of blood."

At Slieve-True is a cairn, 77 yards in circumference and 20 feet high; a little towards the west of the same mountain is another, of nearly equal dimensions; and about a mile to the north-east is a third, exactly similar. In several places are artificial caves, probably intended as places of concealment. At a place called the Friars' Rock are traces of small circular buildings, supposed to have been friars' cells; and about two miles north-west of the town are the ruins of two churches, called respectively Killyan, or Anne's Church, and Carnrawsy. The mineral springs, though not very numerous, are of various qualities: one of these, in the bed of a stream in the eastern part of the town, is a nitrous purgative water; another, about a mile to the east of it, is a fine saline spring; and the waters of another, near the western bank of Lough Morne, are sulphureous and chalybeate, and were once in great repute for their efficacy. Among the distinguished persons born here may be noticed Bishop Tennison, and Richard Kane, a general in the army of William III. The women of the Scottish quarter and the county adjacent commonly retain their maiden surnames after marriage.