Today’s townland is Ballytrustan, near Portaferry, on the Ards Peninsula in County Down.
This photo of the trees and fields of Ballytrustan shows that I haven’t moved far from Tullyboard, my first townland of 2017. The stone tower on the hill belongs to Tullyboard’s windmill, and the church tower below it is St Patrick’s church.
The Ballyfounder Road, pictured above, is the only road running through Ballytrustan. Why did I stop at that spot on the road? Just because I liked the wooden shuttered window on this old building.
According to the PLACENAMESNI website, the name Ballytrustan probably came from an Anglo-Norman surname “Thurstan”. The spelling “Thurstayniston” is recorded in the 14th century, and was later gaelicized as Baile Thrustain.
In the churchyard at St Patrick’s, I found this headstone for the Breen family of Ballytrustan.
more information
Which county is Ballytrustan in? County Down
Which parish is Ballytrustan in? Ballytrustan
Which townlands border Ballytrustan? To the north, Ballynichol and Ballywierd. To the northwest and west, Tullyboard. To the south, Granagh. To the east, Ballyfounder and Killydressy.
Click here to see a map of Ballytrustan 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: Ballytrustan, Ballynichol, Ballyphilip, […]
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[…] Tullyboard? To the north, Ballyphilip and Parson Hall. To the east, inland, Ballynichol and Ballytrustan. To the south, along the coast, […]
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I like the shuttered window. Lots of history there no doubt.
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[…] Today I’m giving you two townlands for the price of one. In recent posts I have followed the Ballyfounder Road out of Portaferry town and through the rural townlands of Ballynichol and Ballytrustan. […]
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[…] To the north, Ballyphilip and Derry. To the east, Ballycam and Ballywierd. To the south, Ballytrustan. To the west, Parson Hall and […]
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I grew up with the view in this picture..Lived a stone’s through from the old barn with the shuttered window which was used by my father for years as a store. Lovely part of the world.
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Hi Karolyn I would love to know more about the area.That is one of my husbands fields in the photo.Do you know why was the road is called Ballyfounder and I am very curious about the old graveyard just slightly down the road which you have to access via a farmers field.Can you tell me it’s name or how old it might be?Thanks
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Cherith Thank you for your comment. You do live in a beautiful part of the world. I hope to get back to the Portaferry area and take more photos this summer.
I don’t know anything about the old graveyard, but I can tell you that the road is called Ballyfounder because it runs through the townland of Ballyfounder. The townland itself took its name from an Anglo-Norman family called something like ‘Poyner.’ You can read more about the name at http://www.placenamesni.org, by searching in their “place-names search” box, or following this link: http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=12551
Or look at more photos on my blog post about Ballyfounder and Killydressy. https://townlandsofulster.com/2017/01/24/ballyfounder-and-killydressy/
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Hi Karolyn I would love to know more about the area.Do you know why the road is called Ballyfounder and I am very curious about the old graveyard just slightly down the road which you have to access via a farmers field.Can you tell me it’s name or how old it might be?Thanks
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