Castle Upton

Castle Upton stands in the village of Templepatrick in County Antrim, about 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Belfast. The site is often given as that of a 13th-century fortified priory of the Knights of St John, and it is sometimes stated that parts of the priory buildings survive in the present fabric. Other sources conclude that no part of the building predates the Norton work, and the existence of a house of the Knights at this site has itself been questioned for lack of evidence.

Sir Robert Norton, an officer under Sir Arthur Chichester, Governor of Carrickfergus, obtained lands along the Six Mile Water and began the castle in the late 16th century, raising what is now the east wing. Sir Humphrey Norton completed the work in the first part of the 17th century; the building is also dated more loosely to around 1610. Like many castles of the Plantation period, it was surrounded by a bawn wall.

In 1625 the castle was purchased by Captain Henry Upton, who had served under the Earl of Essex, and renamed for his own family. Upton became Member of Parliament for Carrickfergus in 1634, and several of his descendants sat as Members for Carrickfergus and for County Antrim. The family supported the Protestant William III in the war against the Catholic James II. In 1776 Clotworthy Upton (1721-1785) was created Baron Templetown after serving in the household of Princess Augusta, dowager Princess of Wales.

Lord Templetown commissioned the Scottish neoclassical architect Robert Adam to remodel Castle Upton in a castellated style. Adam never visited Ireland, though his scheme was mostly carried out, including alterations to the roof line and the addition of the north wing. He also designed a mausoleum and a stable block of double-courtyard form to the north-east of the house; the stable block was built from architectural copies of the old Fish Market of Leith near Edinburgh, since demolished. That work was completed in 1789, after John Upton had succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Templetown.

The 2nd Baron sat in the British House of Commons from 1802 to 1812 as one of two representatives for Bury St Edmunds, and in 1806 he was created Viscount Templetown. His successor Henry Montagu Upton, 2nd Viscount Templetown (1799-1863), commissioned Edward Blore to remodel the house in 1837.

The Upton family sold Castle Upton during the first half of the 20th century. The Adam alterations to the roof were removed and the Adam wing fell into disrepair. In 1963 the semi-ruined house was purchased for £53,000 by Sir Robin Kinahan, a prominent businessman and former Lord Mayor of Belfast; his wife, the artist Coralie de Burgh, guided the restoration over the succeeding years.

The wrecked Adam wing was later reconstructed, and its ballroom fitted with an Italian marble chimney the owners obtained from Downhill Castle in County Londonderry. The Adam Yard stable block was converted to housing. Their son Danny Kinahan and his wife Anna continued the improvements and opened the castle as a wedding venue. In 2016 the Kinahans placed Castle Upton on the market for £1.35m.

The adjacent Templetown Old Burial Ground holds the Upton family mausoleum, built in 1789 to Robert Adam's design and accessible to the public. Among those it commemorates is George Upton, 3rd Viscount Templetown, a Crimean War veteran, MP and Gold Stick in Waiting to Queen Victoria.

The Ascendancy family shares the ground with William Orr of the United Irishmen, whose execution was invoked in the rebel cry "Remember Orr" during the Battle of Antrim in 1798, and with the Geneva-educated preacher Josias Welsh, grandson of the Scottish reformer John Knox.