The town of Carrickfergus, from which the county and adjoining bay take their name, is 9½ miles north-east of Belfast by rail. It stretches along the shore of Belfast Lough, is about one mile in length, and consists of the old or walled town in the centre, the Irish quarter on the west, and the Scotch quarter on the east,—the last being chiefly inhabited by fishermen, descendants from a colony driven by religious persecution from Galloway and Ayrshire about the year 1665. The town is irregularly built, and deficient in neatness. The principal building is the old castle, standing on a projecting rock, from which the town derives the name Carrick; it was formerly a place of much strength, and is still maintained as an arsenal, and mounted with heavy guns. The ancient donjon or keep, 90 feet in height, is still in good preservation. The parish church, an antiquated cruciform structure, was originally a chapel or oratory dependent on a Franciscan monastery. The entrance to a subterranean passage between the two establishments is still visible under the communion-table of the church. The jail, built on the site of the above-mentioned monastery, was formerly the county of Antrim prison. The court-house, which adjoins the jail, is a neat modern building. When Carrickfergus was the county town of Antrim (which it ceased to be in 1850), the assizes were held there. The town has some trade in domestic produce and in linen manufactures, there being several flax spinning-mills and a bleach-work in the immediate neighbourhood. Distilling is carried on in the town. Vessels of 100 tons burden can discharge at the pier, and there is a patent slip on the shore. The population of the municipal town was 3543 in 1851, and 4212 in 1871, with an excess at the latter date of 528 females. In 1871 567 were Catholics and 3645 Protestants, and of the latter 2056 were Presbyterians.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the town obtained a charter, and this was confirmed by James I., who added the privilege of sending two burgesses to the Irish parliament. The corporation, however, was superseded, under the provisions of the Municipal Reform Act of 1840, by a board of municipal commissioners. In 1182, John de Courcy, to whom Henry II. had granted all the parts of Ulster he could obtain possession of by the sword, fixed a colony in this district. De Courcy built the castle which afterwards came into possession of the De Lacy family, who, being ejected, invited Edward Bruce to besiege it (1315). After a desperate resistance the garrison surrendered. In 1386, the town was burned by the Scots, and in 1400 was destroyed by the combined Scots and Irish. Subsequently, it suffered much by famine and the occasional assaults of the neighbouring Irish chieftains, whose favour the townsmen were at length necessitated to secure by the payment of an annual tribute. In the reign of Charles I. many Scotch Covenanters settled in the neighbourhood to avoid the persecution directed against them. In the civil wars, from 1641, Carrickfergus was one of the chief places of refuge for the Protestants of the county of Antrim; and on July 10, 1642, the first Presbytery held in Ireland met there. In that year the garrison was commanded by General Munroe, who having afterwards relinquished the cause of the English Parliament, was, in 1648, surprised and taken prisoner by Sir Robert Adair. At a later period Carrickfergus was held by the partisans of James IL, but surrendered in 1689 to the forces under King William’s general Schomberg; and in 1690 it was visited by King William, who landed here on his expedition to Ireland. In 1760 it was surprised by a French squadron under Commodore Thourot, who landed with about 1000 men, and, after holding the place for a few days, evacuated it on the approach of the English troops. Eighteen years later Paul Jones, in his ship the “Ranger,” succeeded in capturing the “Drake,” a British slocp-of-war, in the neighbouring bay; but he left without molesting the town.