Carrowreagh

Carrowreagh is the name of 33 townlands in Ulster and Connaught, but for this post I’m exploring the one in Dundonald, County Down.

This townland covers a large, mixed area.  Residential streets sprawl across the first third of Carrowreagh, and are, confusingly, part of Ballybeen Estate.

Carrowreagh houses in BallybeenA school stands next to the housing estate, but it doesn’t bear the townland name.  Carrowreagh school disappeared when it amalgamated with Ballyoran to form Brooklands Primary School in 1985.

The middle third of the townland is the trading and business hub. Again the townland names cross over, with a street called Ballyoran Lane in Carrowreagh townland. When I need to clear my head of townland confusion I relax and my friends’ café – the Village Kitchen.

The final third of Carrowreagh is hilly and rural.  Here are two photos of the top of the Carrowreagh Road, showing the explosion of blossom in the gorse between the beginning of April and the end of May.
Carrowreagh Road

Carrowreagh Road with gorse
The hills are home to sheep and, in early July, these cows.
Carrowreagh cattleSome of the land on this hill is owned by the Blakiston Houston Estates. Click here to read more about the Blakiston Baronets, and  here to read an extract from the memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel John Matthew Blakiston-Houston.

Blakiston Houston Carrowreagh signAccording to my usual source, the PLACENAMESNI website, the name Carrowreagh derives from the Irish An Cheathrú Riabhach meaning “the grey or speckled quarter(land)”.  I went in search of grey or speckled things, and found this fence.

TD Carrowreagh


more INFORMATION

Which townlands border Carrowreagh?  Ballybeen, Ballyoran, Craigogantlet, Dunlady, Greengraves, Killarn.

Which parish is Carrowreagh in?   Dundonald.

Which county is Carrowreagh in?  County Down.

CLICK here to see a map of Carrowreagh on the PLACENAMESNI website.

 

 

12 comments

  1. […] According to the PLACENAMESNI website, the name of this townland comes from the Irish An tOileán Riabhach meaning “the brindled island”.  I’m getting familiar with that word riabhach and maybe so are you, as it has appeared in the other brindled, grey, and speckled townlands of Moneyreagh and Carrowreagh. […]

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