During 1689 with its Irish Army garrison, it became a refuge for Catholic inhabitants of the region to flee to as the northern rebellion against James II's rule grew.

[2] After the Break of Dromore on 14 March, Richard Hamilton's Jacobite forces had swept through Eastern Ulster bringing all of County Down and Antrim under their control.

Carrickfergus and its surrounding area were securely under Jacobite rule as Hamilton advanced to lay siege to Derry, one of the few remaining Protestant strongholds in Ireland.

In the face of the sudden defeat, Jacobite forces began to withdraw from Derry and employed a scorched earth policy as they retreated.

They were accompanied into Bangor Bay by George Rooke who had led a Royal Navy force to clear Belfast Lough of French shipping.

Faced with strong Williamite forces in both the north-west and north-east, the Jacobite commander in the north Thomas Maxwell ordered a withdrawal towards Newry.

Williamite fire had created a breach near the North Gate, but at night, the defenders desperately tried to fill it in and make other running repairs on the defences.

By the evening of 27 August, with Henry Wharton's regiment poised to make an assault against the breach, the Jacobites ran up a white flag and agreed to surrender.

[10] Soon after they set off, the Catholic troops began to be robbed of their clothes, possessions and weapons by local Protestant civilians as compensation for the plundering and general persecution they had suffered during the Jacobite occupation of the town.

[12] After leaving Sir Henry Ingoldsby's regiment to garrison Carrickfergus, Schomberg and his main force departed the town on 28 August.

However, Schomberg's progress southwards was slower than he intended, and having reached Dundalk by 7 September he had to halt his force there due to lack of supplies, which were still being shipped through the increasingly distant Carrickfergus.

In June 1690 William of Orange landed at Carrickfergus, shortly before beginning the campaign that would lead to his victory at the Battle of the Boyne the following month.