| Garron Tower (1848) Glenarm |
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Garron Tower was built in 1848 at Garron Point, five miles form Glenarm and provided much needed employment to local people. The Marchioness of Londonderry purchased a farm from Alexander McAllister and his uncle John Mulvenna, for the site of the building. Mulvenna was born on the farm in 1809 and he later ran a grocery store in Main Street, Larne. He died there in 1904 at the age of 95 years. Stone for the building was said to come from Craigcluggan quarry, beside Aughaboy Hill. Fifty workers were employed locally, the total wages for them amounting to £30-£35 per week – a shilling per day for tradesmen and tenpence for labourers. Cairncastle man, James Black, was involved in the building of Garron Tower. Born in 1828, he was also employed as a coachman by the Marchioness, and after getting married took up residence at the Lodge on the Coast Road, where he lived for the last 80 years of his life. He died in 1928 at the grand old age of 101 years. Garron Tower was opened as a hotel in 1900 by Henry McNeill Limited, Larne. It was burned down in 1914, but was later extended and opened again in 1950 as a boarding school called ‘St MacNissi’s College.’ |
