Templepatrick, “The Stone Chapel Of Patrick” is also a most sacred Irish spot for it was there in in the 5th Century St. Patrick himself over 1500 years ago set up a Chapel baptising locals at the local Holy Well. The Chapel would have been roughly where the Mausoleum is in the centre of the cemetery inside the grounds of the now Castle Upton, An interesting wee story is that when the strangers began blasting for a quarry some 100 years ago it caused the Holy Well to dry up, but mysteriously the whole quarry was suddenly flooded, and the machinery lost,.. folklore say the wee folk were angry at these strangers for desecrating the Chapel of St. Patrick the Irish Apostle, indeed it has been said that the Upton’s and the original builder and inhabitant of the castle, Sir Humphrey Norton, were cursed. It was Arthur Chichester, murderer and Pirate who ‘gave’ , the land to Norton, like as if it was his to give anyone, and by 1611, Norton Build Norton Castle. But when his only child, a daughter, ran off with a dragoon sergeant he disinherited her and sold the Castle to Upton who renamed it “Upton Castle”. Upton had been living previously at “Upton Fort”, behind “The Bohill” a Hannahstown Hill, it must have been then that one of the Upton females married Dunn, a Catholic Warrior who lived near the old Amphitheatre atop The Bohill, a spot where Chieftains were elected and vital matters were discussed by the Irish Chieftains for centuries. However the fact that the Upton woman and Dunn had three children who obviously were being reared Catholic was greatly resented by the invader element and so they attacked Dunn’s Fort and burned it to the ground with the family , Dunn, his wife and three children in it. It was here that the English ’historian’ steps in, he attempts to explain the atrocity away with a story that it was Dunn who burned the house with his wife and children in it because his wife would not turn Catholic, he admits Dunn was never heard of again but says that “Dunn was heard to shout and scream in delight as he watched his family burn in his property on the Bohill Hill which he said is now known as ‘The the hill of pleasure ’, needless to say nowhere can it be found that anyone but that apologist ’historian ’ referred to it by that name, Dunn disappeared alright he died in that fire, murdered with his family.

Meanwhile, in 1579, Sir Humphrey Norton had got procession of Castle Robin a former ancient castle of the O’Neill’s, he spent a fortune on it only to die without issue and the Castle lies in ruins today, the moral of this story is ‘never mess with the little people ’.

By the Mid 1600’s every Catholic man, woman and child in the Templepatrick area had either been murdered or sent fleeing to the mountains looking for shelter, those who fled to the ancient Chapel in the town land of Carmavy locked themselves in only to be bombarded with cannon balls , the building burned and the walls were tumbled in on them. For years the area was known as “The Place Of The Slaughter”

When The Men Of Templepatrick Marched on Belfast 1771

“1771 – Belfast became, this year, the scene of an extraordinary riot, the immediate cause of which produced in the end effects extremely injurious to the interests of the north of Ireland. ‘An estate in the county of Antrim, a part of the vast possessions of the marquis of Donegall (an absentee), was proposed, when its leases had expired, to be let only to those who could pay large fines; and the agent of the marquis was said to have exacted extravagant fees on his own account also. Numbers of the former tenants, neither able to pay the fines, nor the rents demanded by those who, on payment of fines and fees, took leases over them, were dispossessed of their tenements, and left without means of subsistence. Rendered thus desperate, they maimed the cattle of those who had taken the lands, committed other outrages, and to express a firmness of resolution, styled themselves hearts of steel. One of their number, charged with felony, was apprehended and confined in Belfast, in order to be transmitted to the county gaol. Provided with offensive weapons, several thousands of peasants proceeded to the town to rescue the prisoner, who was removed to the barrack and placed under a guard of soldiers. Shortly after the steel boys arrived, and pressed forward to the barrack, and several shots were actually exchanged between them and the soldiers. The consequence, in all probability, would have been fatal to many on both sides, and to the town, had not a physician of highly respectable character and leading influence interposed, at the risk of his life, and prevailed with those concerned to set the prisoner at liberty. Being delivered up to his associates, they marched off in triumph. One house only experienced the effects of their resentment. The effects of this insurrection, which extended into the neighbouring counties, proved highly prejudicial to the country. So great and wide was the discontent that many thousands of protestants emigrated from those parts of Ulster to America, where they soon appeared in arms against the British government, and contributed powerfully, by their zeal and valour, to the separation of the American colonies from the crown of Great Britain. A few days later the lord lieutenant issued a proclamation offering a reward for the apprehension of some of the rescuers.

It admits fully and in detail the whole affair. The men of Templepatrick distinctly scored on this occasion. They were largely tenants of the Upton’s, although it has been frequently stated that the Templepatrick rent exacter did not follow in Donegall’s footsteps.