Ballyblack

Ballyblack is an area of rural townland in the Ards Peninsula of County Down, Northern Ireland, approximately 6 miles southeast from Newtownards. The area falls into greenbelt. The presence of drumlins gives the landscape a bumpy texture with hills often compared to the curves of a basket of eggs. The drumlins also make this an area of special scientific interest.

Ballyblack Presbyterian Church

According to PlacenamesNI.org the name Ballyblack originates from "Baile Bhláca" meaning Black’s or Blake’s townland. "The name of the townland of Ballyblack has its origin in the gaelicization of an earlier Anglo-Norman name, which probably resembled Blacke(s)ton. The trouble lies in trying to establish the exact meaning of the English surname Black(e)/Blake. P. H. Reaney[1] shows that Anglo-Norman names in Britain such as Willelmus Blac, Niger (1086 AD) did mean ‘the Black’." [2]

References
  1. Reaney, P. H. (1958) A Dictionary of British Surnames. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; p. 34
  2. Place Names NI,

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