Beyond the Pale

Or, a Norman outpost in Northern Ireland

Today I’m going beyond the pale.

What, you might ask, could be so offensive in a post about the world of Richard the Lionheart? So as to be beyond the pale? Outré? Outré-mer?

Stay tuned.

When last I wrote, I was in Sicily with Richard as he took the town of Messina, and gave away Excalibur to Tancred. Since then I’ve had a few adventures to write about another day. I promise I’ll get back to things closer to Richard, but I had an adventure today that’s related, so I thought I’d share.

Today I’m in Dublin. We have a tradition for Watkins family vacations overseas during Thanksgiving season and this year we’re in Ireland. And today we’re taking a bus tour up to Northern Ireland, visiting the Giant’s Causeway, the Dark Hedges (which you may know as the Kingsroad in Game of Thrones), and this place:

Do you recognize this place?

If you say “It’s Pyke, castle Greyjoy, in Game of Thrones,” gold star. You would be right. And a lucky guess! Because although it was the source for the castle, the Game of Thrones version has been, well, improved a bit:

If you say “No, that’s Castle Dunluce, in Northern Ireland,” another gold star. You would again be right.

Castle Dunluce sits on a rocky outcropping near the Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills, the home of the famous Irish whiskey (after a brisk and windy walk to the Giant’s Causeway there might have been some Bushmills sampling at The Nook to warm up. Medicinal you understand).

Ok, so far so good, but what does this have to do with Richard? And why is it beyond the pale?

So, a little history: Diarmaid Mac Murchada is King of Leinster (Ireland), somewhere around 1166. He abducts someone’s wife, and gets deposed. He goes to Henry II, King of England and Richard’s father, and asks for help getting his kingdom back.

Be wary of asking Kings for help.

Henry gives him a letter of support but little else. So Diarmaid goes to Richard de Clare, nicknamed ‘Strongbow’ ( the English cider brand is named after him), who agrees to help, in return for marrying Diarmaid’s daughter and being named heir.

Richard is against Henry, having supported King Stephen of England against Henry’s mother.

Henry takes a liking to the idea of owning Ireland and getting de Clare back under control, and visits Ireland with a large force, taking control after negotiations with de Clare (Dairmaid has died and de Clare has claimed the Kingship. Henry eventually declares his son John Lackland the Lord of Ireland (yes, the bad King John from Robin Hood tales, called Lackland because his older brothers will inherit all the lands of Henry.)

John comes to Ireland and brings with him, amongst others, William de Burgh. Henry appoints William the Governor of Limerick and grant him vast estates in Leinster and Munster. William will have a great grandson, the Norman Earl of Ulster, Richard Óg de Burgh.

Ok we’re finally there. This Richard will build Dunluce Castle on the site of an old Irish and later Viking fort (the Vikings are everywhere up here, Dublin and Northern Ireland were a Norse kingdom for nearly 200 years). Richard De Burgh was (obviously) anti- Robert the Bruce, the famous leader of the Irish rebellion, who you may know of from Braveheart, if for no other reasons. But curiously, Richard’s daughter ended up married to the Bruce. Aaaawkward.

The castle we see today has little left from that era, much of it having been reconstructed in later centuries. And in 1588 the Spanish sent ships to Ireland to help the Irish fight the English. A storm wrecked the Spanish fleet along the coast. A ship from the Spanish Armada was wrecked on the rocks near the castle. Cannons from the ship were found and installed in the gatehouses. The rest the cargo was sold to pay for restoring the castle.

Later, in 1973, the castle would grace the inner sleeve art of the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy (the famous cover art was taken from the Giant’s Causeway nearby).

And then, in Game of Thrones, become Pyke, castle Greyjoy.

But why beyond the pale?

When Henry came to Dublin, he established a perimeter around the core of Dublin under English control surrounded by spikes or poles. This area was called ‘The Pale’. The word Pale meant ‘pole’ at the time (e.g. ‘im-pale’, ‘palisade’, etc). The area of English control and ‘civilization’ was thus ‘inside the pale’, and outside where chaos reigned (from the English point of view, at least ) was ‘beyond the pale’.

And so today, when I went to Dunluce castle, I was very far beyond the pale.

[An earlier version of this post identified Elizabeth, Robert the Bruce’s wife, as the daughter of Richard de Clare, not Richard de Burgh. We regret the error :)]