We next turn to the townland of Ballygowan, which lends itself to the name of the town and is actually in both Comber & Killinchy Parish. At just over 682 acres in total, the smaller section of 302 acres is in Comber Parish, with the boundary being the main Belfast Road through Ballygowan and the Ballygowan River, which means that The Brae, Ardmore & Carson's developments all fall into Comber Parish. There is then another small satellite section cut off from the main Comber parish section of Ballygowan, but connected to Tullygarvan to the West and Edenslate to the North.
Ballygowan in Irish Baile Mhic Gabhann, meaning the 'Place of Mac Gabhann', however Mac Gabhann has often been anglicised as Smith or Smithson with many accepting the meaning as 'Place/Town of the Blacksmith'. Smith being one of the most common surnames in the English speaking world, it is no wonder that there are seventeen townlands called Ballygowan across Ireland in many counties including Mayo, Kilkenny, Carlow- with five in County Down alone.
The Comber Parish section of Ballygowan, includes the former Olivet orphanage/school now Ballygowan Presbyterian Church Hall- one of only two listed buildings in Ballygowan (the other being Ballygowan Presbyterian Church itself). The B-2 Listed building has an interesting and varied past, one which has become iconic of the town of Ballygowan, it is one of the largest buildings within the Comber parish, second only to Comber's Former Spinning Mill. It's full and often dark history can be explored in our earlier blog post Time is Short: The Olivet Home, Ballygowan.
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