placenamesArdkeen
Ard Caoin
Nineteenth-century church administration and education sit beside an earlier record of Catholic ministry at Lisbane.
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
- Ard Caoin · Irish · main form
- Ardkeen · English · main form
Place & story
A new rectory in 1834
Ardkeen and the northern part of Witter became a separate Church of Ireland rectory in 1834, according to Samuel Lewis. The former perpetual curate became rector, with the bishop holding the patronage. This arrangement followed a proposed dissolution of the older union with Inch. It joined parts of neighbouring civil parishes for ecclesiastical administration. [2]
The Fordes’ school
Lewis also recorded a school with 76 boys and 84 girls supported by Colonel Forde and Lady H. Forde. They contributed £50 annually. A Sunday school and a private school added to the parish's educational provision. His account, published in 1837, records the scale of this patronage without establishing that all children in the parish attended the supported school. [2]
Richard McTeggart at Lisbane
Joseph Clint's history for the Catholic parish identifies Richard McTeggart among the priests registered at Downpatrick in 1704. He was recorded as forty-four years old and living at Lisbane, near the point where the Blackstaff River reaches Strangford Lough. This dated clerical record preserves a named Catholic minister associated with Ardkeen before the later building and enlargement of its chapels. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Down
- Barony
- Ards Upper
- Coordinates
- 54.40498, -5.54331 (approximate)
- Mapped area
- 19.02 km²
- Logainm ID
- 65686 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ardkeen. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ardkeen, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
- From Mass Rock to Mass Shelter: A Short History · Joseph Clint; Parish of Ardkeen
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-10-08. How this page was prepared.