More from Portaferry today. This town on the Ards Peninsula in County Down has already given us the townland of Tullyboard. This time I’m exploring Ballyphilip.
A large part of the town of Portaferry lies inside Ballyphilip, including the High Street, the Square, the arts venue of Portico and the tourist office (but not the castle or aquarium, which are in the townland of Ballymurphy).
The name Ballyphilip is used for the townland and its civil parish, and for this church in Portaferry. The other name on the sign – Ardquin – is also a townland and parish.
According to the PLACENAMESNI website, Ballyphilip started off as the English name “Phyllipestoun”. The name Philip was popular among Anglo-Norman settlers, but there is no certainty on who the Philip of Philip’s town was. Later, the place-name was gaelicised as Baile Philib.
Down on the lough shore, you can enter and leave Ballyphilip on the Portaferry-Strangford ferry.
On the day of my visit, the view from Portaferry was calm and peaceful.
But the waters of Strangford Lough and the Irish Sea can be dangerous. Across the road from the ferry terminal is the lifeboat station. The current building dates from 2009, but a lifeboat service has operated in this area since the 19th century, based in Cloughey and then Portavogie before moving to Portaferry in 1980.
I will finish with the only wildlife that I spotted in Ballyphilip – two black-headed gulls. As these gulls have white faces in winter, the dark face is a giveaway that I took the photo last June.
more information
Click here to read more about the Portaferry lifeboat and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Which county is Ballyphilip in? County Down
Which parish is Ballyphilip in? Ballyphilip
Which townlands border Ballyphilip? To the north, Ballymurphy and Ballyminnish. To the east, inland, Ballynichol, Derry and Parson Hall. To the south, along the coast, Tullyboard.
Click here to see a map of Ballyphilip on TOWNLANDS.IE.
Click here to read more about the townland name on the website of PLACENAMESNI.org
Townlands of Ulster 
[…] go straight to my page about that townland. Or skip straight to this month’s new posts: Ballyphilip, […]
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Happy New Year! (Can you tell I’ve been pre-occupied?) Picturesque as always! Interesting about black and white feathers changing the look completely of the gulls!
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[…] townlands border Ballynichol? To the north, Ballyphilip and Derry. To the east, Ballycam and Ballywierd. To the south, Ballytrustan. To the west, […]
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[…] townlands border Tullyboard? To the north, Ballyphilip and Parson Hall. To the east, inland, Ballynichol and Ballytrustan. To the south, along the […]
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[…] PLACENAMESNI describes it as an Anglo-Norman name which has been gaelicized (just like Ballyphilip and Ballytrustan). In this case the Anglo-Norman version was “Punyertoun”, named for […]
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[…] a while since I’ve been down to Portaferry, but I still have some photos from last summer’s trips around that end of the Ards […]
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[…] Some sources suggest that Ballyquintin is named for a Saint Quintin, but according to PLACENAMESNI.org the name is more likely to come from an Anglo-Norman family. Ballyquintin was probably once known as Quinton’s town, or “Quintonton”, then as Baile Chuintín in Irish. This would follow the pattern of the Portaferry townland “Felipton” becoming Ballyphilip. […]
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