The medieval Belfast Castle was eventually seized by a branch of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty of the Cénel nEógain, probably at the end of the fourteenth-century or the beginning of the fifteenth century.

[24][25] The rebuilt castle was again briefly seized from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye in 1489, this time by Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill I (Red Hugh O'Donnell I), Rí na Tír Chonaill (King of Tír Chonaill), an immensely powerful Gaelic ruler from the west of Ulster.

[24] In the early sixteenth-century, Belfast Castle was seized on three occasions by two senior-ranking members of the House of Kildare, part of the wider Geraldine dynasty.

The castle was briefly occupied twice by the forces of The 8th Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland and the leading Geraldine at the time.

[9][19] During the Nine Years' War in the 1590s, English forces again occupied Belfast Castle, taking it over from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye.

[9] In June 1597, the forces of Shane McBrian O'Neill, the Lord of Lower Clandeboye and son of Sir Brian mac Feidhlimidh Ó Néill, attacked the castle and overpowered its English garrison, summarily executing all the prisoners that they captured.

[28] English forces, under the command of Sir John Chichester, soon marched north to retake Belfast Castle from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye, which they did in July 1597.

[28] Chichester reported back to his superiors that his forces had retaken the castle "without anie loss to us, and put those wee found in yt to the sworde [sic]".

[28] Chichester then placed Belfast Castle and its surrounding settlement under the command of Sir Ralph Lane, the Elizabethan adventurer.

[9] Lane, the then Muster Master-General,[9] had previously served, over a decade earlier, as Governor of the ill-fated Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina.

Sir John Chichester, who had been appointed as Governor of Carrickfergus Castle, soon fell out with the previously neutral MacDonnells of the Glens.

In a battle fought in November 1597 against the MacDonnells at Altfrackyn (also known as Aldfreck), a townland just north of Ballycarry, an English force was overpowered and suffered 180 men killed.

Chichester, who had been one of the most notorious English commanders in Ireland during the Nine Years' War,[34] received a King's letter in August 1603, which officially put him in charge of Belfast Castle and its surrounding lands.

[9][34] A new grant of the castle and its surrounding lands was made by the Crown the following year, in May 1604, again to Chichester, who would serve as Lord Deputy of Ireland between 1605 and 1616.

[59][60] On the 24 April 1708, the "Plantation-era" Belfast Castle, which had been built for Lord Chichester, accidentally burnt down, killing three sisters and one servant of The 4th Earl of Donegall (1695–1757).

Although popularly attributed to Sir Charles Lanyon, some architectural historians believe that the castle was actually designed by either his business partner, and former apprentice, W.H.

[84] This Victorian castle, which has been described by Sir Charles Brett as "a rugged and determined exercise in the fullness of the Scottish Baronial style, perched on a highly romantic site with a superb view",[1] remains standing and in use to the present day.

Construction cost well over the £11,000 set aside to pay for the project, forcing Lord Donegall to seek financial assistance from Baron Ashley (1831–1886), his son-in-law, in order to complete the new castle.

[101] Running the castle became ever more of a financial burden to the Shaftesbury family, especially after what remained of their County Antrim estate was sold off, under the terms of the Land Acts, in the 1890s and the years immediately before 1914.

After the Second World War, a large amount of housing was built on the lands of the Belfast Castle Demesne that bordered the Antrim Road.

This construction in the mid-twentieth-century left both the Chapel of the Resurrection and the former Main Gate Lodge marooned in the middle of housing estates, no longer being part of the castle's demesne.

The sculpture, which was originally located in the Chapel of the Resurrection, was carved in white marble, and it depicts the young Lord Belfast lying on a sofa, dying from scarlatina, being mourned by his lace-capped mother, Lady Donegall.

[103] Following its closure, the chapel suffered extensive vandalism throughout the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and first two decades of the twenty-first-century, with all of the glass in the building's windows either being removed or destroyed.

[112] The grand, octagonal stone carriageway piers that once stood to one side of the Gate Lodge were demolished in the mid-twentieth century, as was the attached wall surrounding the demesne.

[8][113] Like the former Chapel of the Resurrection, the Gate Lodge is now surrounded by modern housing and is no longer part of the present-day Belfast Castle Demesne.

[58] Belfast Castle is open to the public daily with a visitor centre, antique shop, Millennium Herb Garden, restaurant, and a playground.

[3][5] While it is open to the public daily, reservations can be made for a private room to host weddings, business meetings, and parties.

Scots Baronial style castles were typically built on asymmetrical plans and included high roofs, towers, and turrets to display the owner's status.

[84] One of the castle's most iconic features is the winding stone staircase on the garden façade, whose greyish-brown colour stands out against the burnt sienna sandstone and brick red detail.

The architecture partnership of Hewitt and Haslam oversaw and carried out the over £2 million project, with the castle and demesne reopening on Armistice Day, 11 November 1988.