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.
In 1513 a dispute arose between the descendants of Garrett MacQuillin and those of Walter MacQuillin for Dunluce, then in the former’s hands. O’Donnell seems to have placed the Walter MacQuillins in possession.
Sir Thomas Cusake mentions the castle in his account of the expedition against the MacDonnels in 1551, and four years later a fierce dispute arose between the MacQuillins and MacDonnels for the chieftainship of the Route district.
These MacDonnels were of Scotch descent, and in 1565 the famous Shane O’Neill set out to expel the Scots from Antrim.
A great fight ensued, in which James and Sorley Boy (yellow or swarthy Charles) MacDonnel were taken prisoners.
Dunluce held out for three days longer, but Shane kept Sorley Boy without food until the garrison should surrender, which they accordingly did for his sake as well as their own.