Situated towards Newtownards to the West of Scrabo and Killynether forest. Ballyalton is actually in both Newtownards & Comber parish with the smaller Southern section of around 150 acres or just under a 1/4 of a square mile in Comber. The Irish word Altáin could mean ravine, stream or hillock; and given its location in the undulating landscape surrounding Scrabo Hill peppered with small streams and glens, it's anyone's guess which was the original intended meaning- 'Place of the stream' or 'Place of the hillock'.
While there are two listed structures within Ballyalton, they both fall within the Newtownards parish-Ballyalton House and its Gate Screen both B1 listed. Ballyalton House is described as an "unusual, large two storey gentleman's residence of pre-1833 origin but now with a formal mid 19th century Tudor influenced front facade and accompanying side turrets". The accompanying gate screen reflects the Tudor Gothic update along with a gate lodge which was demolished in the 1960s.
At the South-Eastern corner of Ballyalton where it meets Unicarval (Dundonald Parish) and Ballyhenry Major there were two early flax mills with accompanying mill pond and mill race (one Ballyalton and one Unicarval). However, with the decline of the Ulster linen industry in the 19th century, these mills fell into disuse. It is unknown whether either flax mill was owned by the Campbell family who also owned the nearby Ballyalton House in the early to mid-19th century. However, this branch of the family was likely related to the prominent linen industrialist Henry James Campbell (1813-1889) of Newtownards (whose maternal grandfather was Michael Campbell of Ballyalton).
Henry James Campbell founded Henry Campbell & Co. which managed the very successful Mossley Mill in Co. Antrim. A bachelor with no heirs, Henry left £200,000 on the request a hospital or school be built in Belfast with his name. The exchequers ultimately decided on the latter and Campbell College was opened at Belmont in 1894, intended as per Campbell's will to provide a "superior, liberal Protestant education"- pictured here in this coloured etching by Robert Cresswell Boak (1875-1949).
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