54.958°N 6.506°W / 54.958; -6.506

The Route (Irish: An Rúta)^[1] was a medieval territory in Gaelic Ireland, located on the north-east coast of Ulster. It stretched between Coleraine and Ballycastle and as far south as the Clogh River.^[2] Originally part of Twescard, a county of the Earldom of Ulster, it was later ruled by the MacQuillans and then the MacDonnells.

The territory of the Route was originally part of Twescard,^[3] a county of the Earldom of Ulster that at its height stretched from the Glens of Antrim to Inishowen. The murder of the Earl of Ulster in 1333 saw the Irish chiefdoms rebel and the Earldom of Ulster eventually collapsed, with it gradually almost all falling under Gaelic control. By the 1460s, the de Mandevilles, who held manors in Twescard, decided to abandon them and sold their land to the MacQuillans,^[3] who according to the Annals of Ulster were already in the region warring with the O'Cahans as far back as 1442.

The MacQuillans themselves had fled from their territory in Down, having originally come over to Ulster from southwest Scotland to aid the earls of Ulster as mercenaries.^[3] Both families had previously held the office of "constable of the bonnaght" for the Earldom of Ulster - a system adopted from the Irish where mercenaries where hired to act as a body of standing troops.^[4]

Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy of Ireland, successfully reduced parts of Ulster into allegiance to the English during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He laid siege to Dunluce Castle, forcing its surrender on honourable terms. The MacDonnells subsequently took it back by "treachery", but in 1585 it was once more surrendered to the English by Sorley Boy MacDonnell, to whom it was returned in charge.^[5]

Having made his submission, Sorley Boy obtained a grant to himself and his heirs of the greater part of the Route territory, between the rivers Bann and Bush (an area then called 'the Boys'), with certain other lands to the east, and was made constable of Dunluce Castle. A month beforehand, Sorley Boy's nephew had received a grant in similar terms of the greater part of 'the Glynns' (the Glens of Antrim). At the same time, in the Treaty of Berwick (1586), a clause was inserted recognising the right of the clan MacDonnell to remain in Ireland.

In 1584, as part of the shiring of Ulster, Sir John Perrott merged the territory of the Route with that of the Glens of Antrim and the greater portion of the territory of Clandeboye to create County Antrim. He also divided it into baronies, with the Route being divided into the baronies of Dunluce Lower and Upper, the North East Liberties of Coleraine, and Toome Lower and Upper.^[5] In 1613, as part of the creation of County Londonderry during the Plantation of Ulster, the northwestern portion of the Route, which formed the North East Liberties of Coleraine, was transferred from County Antrim so that the London companies could control both banks of the River Bann.