Route, County Antrim
Coordinates: 54°57′29″N 6°30′22″W / 54.958°N 6.506°W The Route, also historically known as Reuta, Rowte, or in Irish: an Rúta, was a medieval territory in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, consisting of the baronies of Dunluce Upper, Dunluce Lower, Toome Lower, and the North East Liberties of Coleraine (in County Londonderry). It also formed part of the more ancient kingdoms of Dál Riata and Dál nAraidi, as well as part of the Earldom of Ulster. It was once ruled by the MacQuillans and later the MacDonnells.
The Route derives its name from the MacQuillans, who had bought the remaining lands and manors of the de Mandevilles in north Antrim in the 1460s. Originally known as Twescard, they renamed it the Route, after their "rout", a common term then for a private army.
The territory of Route was originally part of Twescard, which was 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, who according to the Annals of Ulster were already in the region warring with the O'Cahans as far back as 1442.
...
Wikipedia