Ballymaglaff out the Comber Road to Dundonald coming from the Irish Baile Mhig Laithimh or McGlave's Townland. At 1.26 square miles or 807 acres it is one of the larger townlands in Comber parish.
Ballymaglaff also contains the remains of an ancient rath or 'fort' [DOW010:009] which dates from the Early Christian Period (500-1100 AD).
To the far North of the townland there is also evidence found in the late 1980s which suggests Ballymaglaff as a settlement location of a Early Mesolithic period (7000-5000BC). Peter Carr first reported on the site in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology Vol. 48 (1985). Peter had collected over 389 pieces of struck flint and believes that the site is one of the first inland settlements discovered from that period in this area suggesting "an industrial site (cores, waste flakes, microliths), positioned to take advantage of a relative abundance of natural flint, and the fishing to be had in the Inler River". In a follow-up article in the same Journal, Peter Carr reported that the field produced 1749 pieces of struck flint, brought up by a plough also cast up pockets of blackened soil flecked with charcoal, in which a number of blades were found. His second report included diagrams of flint found at the Ballymaglaff site which can be seen below.
Unfortunately in 2014, with the construction of a housing development and access to the Comber Greenway it is believed that the site was mostly destroyed as no archaeological conditions had been attached to the planning permission. Peter Carr was interviewed by the Belfast Telegraph in June 2014 and stated that "over twenty of the period's rare and highly distinctive microliths have been discovered here- very few sites can claim over ten". Peter Woodman, expert on Ireland's Mesolithic period stated "The destruction of such a site about which so little is know is always a great tradegy".
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