Enter the gardens of the new Clotworthy house and you will see a rather ancient looking sculpture of a dog spread on its paws, regal and stately, and always looking ahead…watching….
Anyone who tells you the story of this statue and the reason for it being there may have you wondering if this is all true but the stories are that the Irish wolfhound sculpture, or the Massereene Hound as it is sometimes called, is the guardian keeper for the Clotworthy family and possibly the whole town. In the days when the old Antrim Castle was still owned by the Clotworthy family and was well in existence until its untimely destruction in 1922, the story of the mysterious hound came to light through some strange episodes that had the family realize there was something protective about the huge Irish hound statue that watched over their estate. It would protect the family as it had done so in the past, Sir Hugh had said, as he marveled on the stone dog statue he set up atop one of the towers, and he was quite sure like an oracle, the dog would foresee to their welfare or doom them to their deaths and so, he had warned that the statue should never be removed. The family would face "decay" he warned and the statue, he declared rather firmly, should always be in its place right above the castle turret and no where else.
To some extent, Sir Hugh's warning should never have gone unheeded. Maybe, the statue should never have been removed. When the castle went through some renovations which included work to be restored on the statue, the dog was removed and word had it that the men who removed the statue, used a chisel which eventually broke the tail off. They left the tail behind and moved the statue up above a wall that measured 10 feet high close to the gate. That may have been the start of the troubles for the family and the castle for hard times came upon just as suddenly. During the Williamite War in Ireland, also known as the Jacobite War in Ireland, Jacobite General Richard Hamilton raided Antrim Castle and stole much of the valuable silverware and furnishings belonging to Viscount Massareene. This was a terrible blow to the family as the loss was said to be substantial for those days equating to some three thousand pounds. There isn't much information thereafter as to the castle history up to the point when the castle was used for political conferences in the early 1900s but there is one thing strange that happened when the fire gutted the castle. The castle was reduced to ruins and what remained was like the stump of the dog's tail. The shape of the stump that was left behind after the castle's destruction was almost as if the dog had done its final curse on the castle for having been moved it to a location it possibly never liked!
The Clotworthy family however was well noted in laying out the beautiful gardens in the Antrim area and it seemed that even with the destruction of the castle because of the fire that some said was IRA initiated (although that cannot be verified), the gardens are possibly what continues to charm many visitors to the area. The fire thankfully never quite destroyed the unique Anglo-Dutch water features set by the family, and today, the local Irish government, having been inspired by the Clotworthy historic gardens, are now rebuilding the remains of the castle's gardens as part of a large restoration effort to recognize the castle's gardens as it was laid out in the 17th century. With the installation of the dog statue come to rest, hopefully it will turn its attention towards guarding the new gardens and the town of Atrium which has worked to keep it there hoping it would guard them in the centuries going forward.
But what really started out the history of this fascinating story which many have said is true? The records show it started in 1613 when Sir Hugh Clotworthy brought his wife, the young bride Lady Marian Langford to Antrim. Over the months following their wedding, the lady had grown bored. While her husband was busy on his military tours, she had no one else to spend time with and consequently, feeling somewhat miserable and dejected, she would spend time walking around the castle grounds. Over time, her adventurous pursuits also led to her more explorations near the banks of one of the largest freshwater lakes in Ireland, Lough Neagh.
One day as she was on one of her walks, she heard a terrifying growl behind her. When she turned to face the dreaded source, she was shocked to see that it was an angry wolf. She looked at it not knowing what to do. Of course, she was frightened but she also realized the wolf had cornered her. But just at that moment from the woods, she heard the bark of another dog which seemed to appear from nowhere and it charged towards the wolf bringing it to the ground. The story goes that Lady Marian fainted seeing the two animals lock in battle and when she regained consciousness, she found herself face to face with a very large dog and next to it, lying in a pile of blood and looking so brutally savaged, was the dead wolf. The lady realized that the dog that had saved her life and she became grateful. She could see it was wounded and needed her attention, so she took it back to the river banks where she nursed it lovingly. Once the dog had recovered, the story goes that it disappeared right before her eyes. From that time on, the story of the dog saving Lady Marian was never forgotten.
Then years later, in the middle of winter as a mixture of rain and gusty winds broke out in the wee hours of the night, the sound of a dog was heard howling rising eventually above the sounds of the severe storm that brewed outside the castle. Sir Hugh Clotworthy quickly sent his men to check as to what could be wrong and they were shocked to find a troop of Irish invaders ready to take their castle down. Sir Hugh quickly assembled his men and frightened the troops away with cannon shots but in the early hours of dawn as he checked his castle grounds, he was led to the sight of the dead corpse of the dog, the very dog which had protected the Clotworthy family for the second time again.
Sir Hugh Clotworthy, being a superstitious man, quickly had a stone sculpture of this dog erected as a way of warding off those who tried to threaten his family. He instructed that the 3 foot tall dog statue be placed on one of the Antrim Castle towers near the gateway. It was an Irish wolfhound they could see that had saved them and over the years, the dog was affectionately referred to as the Massareene Hound. This would be the dog that would take its place as the favored custodian of the Clotworthy family for another four centuries for Sir Hugh was very convinced that the dog would ward off his foes and anyone who tried to hurt the family. It was their protector.
If the warnings of Sir Hugh were indeed right, the statue should never have been moved from its rightful position. And so the story goes that the warning was not heeded and the statue was moved. As of today, very little is known about the Clotworthy family other than the story that they have moved out of Ireland possibly into England and other parts of Europe. However, the statue stayed and the Antrim Borough Council of Northern Ireland has done all it can to preserve this unique sculpture as part of its heritage. It is now resting in a location within what used to be the original estate of Antrim Castle.