The Macdonnells could expect Shane's sizeable host to take some weeks to cross from south down into their territory on the Antrim coast. The lord of Dunnyveg, and of the Route and Glynnes, James MacDonald, 6th of Dunnyveg, and his brothers started gathering as many warriors in the Highlands and Islands as they could muster. However, Shane advanced with unprecedented speed, cutting a road ‘6 marching men wide’ in a single week through the dense woodland of the forest of Killultagh, "Coil Ultagh, the great wood of Ulster," situated along the shores of Lough Neigh between modern Lurgan and Aldergrove. Within a week the hosting arrived at Edenduffcarrick, the principal castle of the Clandeboye O'Neills (modern Shane's Castle near Antrim town) where Shane fortified an old rath at Gallanagh while awaiting the hosting of the Clandeboye O'Neills.