The Glens of Antrim in Irish Art: Cushendall, Cushendun and Fair Head
The Glens of Antrim run down the north-east corner of Ireland like the ribs of a hand: nine deep valleys cut by the Antrim plateau on their way to the Sea of Moyle. Most visitors drive the Causeway Coast Road and look out at the water. The painters who stayed longest looked the other way, up the glens, at green slopes, red-roofed villages and the long shoulder of Lurig Mountain.
Nine glens, one coast
The glens (Glenarm, Glencloy, Glenariff, Glenballyemon, Glenaan, Glencorp, Glendun, Glenshesk and Glentaisie) each hold a small river and a scatter of farms, and each reaches the sea at a different angle. The result is a coastline where mountain, bay and village sit unusually close together, which is exactly what a landscape painter wants in a single frame.
Cushendall, the so-called capital of the glens, is the natural base. Its curved bay and the bulk of Lurig Mountain behind it appear again and again in the work of Barra Ó Maoláin, whose semi-abstract treatment turns the hillside into broad planes of green and gold. Lurig from the Shore catches it from the beach, while a sunset version sets the same mountain against a golden sky.
The Curfew Tower and Cushendun
Two buildings do much of the work of making these villages recognisable. In Cushendall, the small red sandstone Curfew Tower stands at the crossroads. It was built by the landowner Francis Turnly in the early nineteenth century, and he described it as a place to hold idlers and rioters. Historians suspect it was as much a decorative folly as a lock-up, and it has been a landmark ever since. The Curfew Tower, Cushendall gives it the close, affectionate treatment of a place the artist clearly knows.
A few miles north, Cushendun looks like it belongs somewhere else. The village was designed from 1912 by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis for Ronald McNeill, later Baron Cushendun, in a Cornish style intended to please his wife Maud, who came from Penzance. The whitewashed terraces and slate roofs by the river mouth are now in the care of the National Trust. Artists have been drawn to the contrast between that tidy village and the open beach and hills behind it, as in Cushendun Landscape.
Fair Head and the cliffs beyond
Past Cushendun the road climbs towards Torr Head and Murlough Bay, and the land turns harder. Fair Head, the great dolerite headland above Ballycastle, faces Rathlin Island and, on a clear day, the Scottish coast. It is a scene that rewards a painter who is willing to simplify. Fair Head from the Sea views the cliffs from the water, while Murlough Bay and Fair Head shows the sweep of the bay below them.
The Causeway Coast
West of Ballycastle the glens give way to the better-known sights. Dunluce Castle perches on a basalt outcrop above the sea, and the Giant's Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, spreads its interlocking columns into the surf. The old story says Fionn mac Cumhaill built the causeway to reach a rival giant in Scotland, and the geology of volcanic cooling is no less remarkable. If you want the coast in its full drama, the Giant's Causeway framed print and Dunluce Castle are the places to start.
Choosing for your wall
The glens prints work best where you can give them some space: above a sofa, a sideboard or a dining table, where the greens can hold a room. If the place matters to you personally, whether you grew up in Cushendall or honeymooned in Cushendun, a village or a headland you know will carry more than a generic coastal view. You can browse the whole set in The Glens of Antrim collection, widen the search through Irish landscape and seascape prints, or start from the full range at Irish Art Prints.