placenames.ie
Townland

Ballydown

Baile an Dúin

The old national school survives at the Ulster Folk Museum, while a later church project provided new space for the congregation.

Watercolour and fine ink illustration of the circular stone tower and low roofs at the former Ballydown Bleachworks.
Illustration, surviving Ballydown Bleachworks tower, near Banbridge, County Down
Recorded locationBallydown54.34300° N · 6.24493° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ie

The name

bailetownland, town, homesteaddúnfort

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 an Dúin · Irish · main form · non-validated name
  • Ballydown · English · main form

Place & story

A school preserved elsewhere

Ballydown National School was built beside the Presbyterian church in 1865 and closed in 1939. The Ulster Folk Museum dismantled and moved it to Cultra in 1980. Its single classroom had one fireplace and high windows on both sides, following a plan published by the Commissioners of National Education in 1858. The museum names William Thompson Gilmore as principal for most of the period from 1871 to 1911. The surviving school is therefore a relocated building, not one still standing at Ballydown. [2]

The congregation’s 2014 building

HPA Architecture began working with the church’s development committee in spring 2012. Its account records completion in 2014 of an auditorium seating up to 415 people, with a reception foyer and crèche linked to the existing halls. Those halls had themselves been renovated and slightly extended in 2009. [3]

Geographic information

Place type
Townland
County
Down
Civil parish
Seapatrick
Coordinates
54.34300, -6.24493
Mapped area
2.25 km²
Logainm ID
66714 ↗

People & family history

Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.

1926 census

This year is outside the available dataset’s coverage. This does not indicate a population of zero.

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Ballydown. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Ballydown National School: Ulster Folk Museum · Ulster Folk Museum; National Museums NI
  3. Ballydown Presbyterian Church: completed 2014 · HPA Architecture Ltd
  4. Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
  5. Surviving Ballydown Bleachworks tower, near Banbridge, County Down illustration: based on a Ballydown Bleachworks, Banbridge by Albert Bridge. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-06-27. How this page was prepared.