The strongest walls are on the south and east sides. The drawbridge formerly led into a small enclosed courtyard, at the lower end of which stands the barbican, containing the main entrance, and with an embrasure at one side commanding the bridge. This has corbelled bartizans at the angles of the south gable, which are a Scotch type of architecture.
A strong wall, following the cliff, connects the barbican with a circular tower at the south-east angle called M’Quillan’s Tower. The walls of this building are 8 feet thick, and a small staircase in them leads to the top of both tower and wall.
Formerly another curtain extended from M’Quillan’s Tower along the edge of the rock northward to Queen Maud’s Tower, which is also circular but of smaller dimensions.
On the west and north the castle walls are not so thick as elsewhere, and here the principal domestic offices are situated.
On the north side, over the mouth of the cave which penetrates below, are the remains of the kitchen, where a terrible accident happened during a storm. The date is placed at 1639. The young Duchess of Buckingham, who had married the 2nd Earl of Antrim, was giving a great entertainment, when suddenly the kitchen gave way, and eight servants, including the cook, sank into the waters of the cave below, and were drowned. It is said a tinker, who was sitting in a window mending pots and pans, was the only survivor of those present, and “the tinker’s window” is still pointed out.
The state rooms of the castle are situated behind the towers at the eastern side. The great hall measures 70 feet by 23 feet, and has a large fireplace and three bay windows, which were probably later improvements made by Sorley Boy M’Donnell for his son Sir James, when he took up his abode at Dunluce.
The castle yard is situated between the hall and the parapet wall, and measures 120 feet by 25 feet.
A small vaulted room at the east side of the castle called the Banshee Tower, is pointed out as a haunted chamber.
The oak roof of the chapel, which had been restored in the Duchess of Buckingham’s time (1637-40), was afterwards used to cover a barn in the district.
The buildings on the mainland are of much later date than those on the rock. It is probable that they are later than 1640, though whether they were built, as tradition states, because the domestics refused to inhabit the older castle after the subsidence of the kitchen, or whether the increase of the family’s importance required more accommodation, it is hard to say.