a sliver of land that was bounded by the Farset to the north and the River Owenvara (Blackstaff River) to the south. Both the River Farset and the River Owenvara (Irish: Abhainn Bheara, meaning 'River of the Staff', usually known nowadays in English as the Blackstaff River) emptied into the River Lagan just to the east of this castle site. 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. The Uí Néill almost certainly had Belfast Castle rebuilt at some stage, probably as a Gaelic towerhouse, either building on the same site as the Norman castle or else building their towerhouse very near to that site. This branch of the Uí Néill carved out a túath or Gaelic territory for themselves in South Antrim and North Down which became known as Clann Aedha Buídhe (Clandeboye). The Uí Néill of Clandeboye maintained Belfast Castle as one of their main residences, with the castle and its surrounding túath largely remaining in their hands throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a few brief exceptions. The castle was briefly taken in 1476 by Éinri mac Eoghain Ó Néill (known in English as Henry O'Neill), Rí na Tír Eoghain (King of Tyrone), usually known during his lifetime as 'the Great O'Neill', when he 'attacked the castle of Belfast which he took and demolished'. The rebuilt castle was again briefly seized from the Uí Néill of Clandeboye in 1489, this time by Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill (Red Hugh O'Donnell), Rí na Tír Chonaill (King of Tír Chonaill), an immensely powerful Gaelic ruler from the west of Ulster. Ó Domhnaill, whose chief residence was Donegal Castle in Donegal Town, had invaded Clandeboye with his army and 'took and demolished the Castle of Belfast, and then returned safe to his house loaded with immense spoils'. In the early sixteenth-century, Belfast Castle was seized on three different 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. Lord Kildare seized the castle and sacked Belfast in 1503 and again in 1512. His son and heir, The 9th Earl of