Carrickfergus

Carrickfergus, an Irish seaport, forming a county in the province of Ulster, and county of Antrim, on the N. side of Belfast Lough, 9-1/2 miles north of Belfast, and 12 miles S. of Larne. There is a twelfth-century castle, with a keep 90 ft. high, standing upon a rock which juts into the sea. William III. visited the town in 1690 before the battle of the Boyne, and the French Admiral Thurot landed a force of about 1,000 men here in 1760, and a few years later Paul Jones captured a British ship in the bay. There is some flax spinning in the town, and an oyster fishery.