Ballynichol lies South of Comber between the Ballygowan & Killinchy Roads. In Irish, Baile Niócail means 'Nicholastown' and is 0.45 square miles or 289 acres.
Despite it's small size there are a number of interesting historical sites within the townland included a B2 listed bridge known as 'Ballynichol Bridge' [HB24/16/037]. This bridge was constructed in the late 1850s to allow the Ballynichol road to cross the new BCDR line between Comber to Downpatrick via Ballygowan/Saintfield opening in March 1859. While the railway line closed in 1950, the bridge still remains built out of basalt rubble and sandstone, complete with sandstone voussoirs (wedge shaped stone block used in constructing arches) and brick intrados (the interior curve of an arch).
Ballynichol also contains a medieval motte [DOW010:042] which was unfortunately completely destroyed around 1948. Another, nearby site which partly survives is a court tomb on the Ballynichol Road also known locally as the 'Five Sisters' or 'Hand of the Jacks' [DOW010:041]. These five standing stones, which are in the private garden of a modern bungalow, are all that survive of a prehistoric cairn or burial mound dating from the between 4000-3000BC . The Cairn was excavated in 1955 with human remains and some pottery fragments removed, the diagram below shows the arrangement of the stones at that time. The Comber Research Group visited in 2023 and took the photo (below right), which when compared to the photo taken by W. A. Green (below left) in the early 1900s shows how little it has changed despite now being a garden feature. The OS maps also note a small Roman Catholic Chapel in 1834, shown abandoned in 1858 and of which no trace survives today.
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