Belfast Castle

The name Belfast derives from the Irish Béal Feirste, meaning 'Mouth of the Farset,' referring to the sandbar and tidal ford at the confluence of the Farset and Lagan rivers. The castle's earliest iteration dates to the 1220s, when Norman forces under John de Courcy established a fortification in what is now Belfast city centre to control the strategic river crossing. Sir Arthur Chichester, a k...