Evolution of a Castle Town

It began with a medieval castle upon a hill at the end of a peninsula formed by the confluence of two rivers...

From Castlerock as it was affectionately known, a supporting harbor area quickly developed. This was followed by a thin town that became to be known as the Royal Mile

Eventually the Royal Mile was also enclosed in a defensive wall and a moat was dug to separate it from the peninsula.

The peninsula was farmed extensively to support the developing town.

Eventually buildings began to spill over onto the Peninsula as the Royal Mile became overcrowded. The Peninsula is seen here in its more modern iteration with appropriate setback floodplains to manage the river.

In the 1800s the ruler decided to develop a nearby tract of land for his New Palace and to house his burgeoning bureaucracy that the old Castlerock and Royal Mile were by now unable to handle.

It would be organized around a ceremonial boulevard that lay on an axis directed at the old Castlerock.

Quickly the vast tracks of new land were filled in with buildings.

At the foot of the boulevard just beyond a well manicured park the New Harbor was constructed, such that the central axis would greet and awe any visitor arriving by boat.

In the modern automobile age, the old streets of the New Palace area were unable to handle the vast amounts of traffic generated by residents and visitors alike, such that part of the boulevard and its attendant parks had to be cut up and given over to a massive roundabout to ease the gridlock and achieve a modicum of vehicular flow.