placenamesNewtown Crommelin
Baile Nua Chromlain
An ambitious nineteenth-century village project brought houses, industry and institutions to the Antrim hills.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile Nua Chromlain · Irish · main form · validated name
- Newtown Crommelin · English · main form
Place & story
The planned village
The archaeological settlement record dates Newtown Crommelin’s foundation to 1824 and associates it with Nicholas de Lacherois Crommelin of Carrowdore. His investment provided a mill, kiln, school, church and cottages. The record describes the venture as struggling by 1833, yet further investment followed with an iron smelter in 1843. These successive projects explain the industrial origins of the small settlement. [2]
Parish and market
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 dictionary describes Newtown-Crommelin as a parish on the road from Broughshane towards Ballycastle. Its recorded population of 727 applies to the parish, rather than the village alone. Nearly two-thirds of its land consisted of mountain and bog. Lewis also records a police station and fairs on the second Tuesday of each month, giving the upland settlement regular commercial and administrative functions. [3]
Church and schools
Lewis records a glebe house built in 1831 with financial help from the Board of First Fruits, which also contributed £800 towards the church around the same period. About 270 children attended the parish’s schools. These included a boys’ school supported by the Methodist Missionary Society, a girls’ school receiving assistance from London, a private school and two Sunday schools. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Newtown Crommelin. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Newtown Crommelin Historic Settlement, ANT024:042, MONID17367 · Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record; Archaeology Data Service catalogue
- Newtown-Crommelin, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.