Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Islandmagee

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County
  
County Antrim

Sovereign state
  
United Kingdom

EU Parliament
  
Northern Ireland

Dialling code
  
028

Country
  
Northern Ireland

Postcode district
  
BT40

Province
  
Ulster

Islandmagee wwwislandmageecommunityorgwpcontentuploads20

Islandmagee whitehead i northern ireland


Islandmagee (from Irish: Oileán Mhic Aodha, meaning "Magee’s island/peninsula") is a peninsula and civil parish on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Carrickfergus. It is part of the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural community with a long history since the mesolithic period. In the early medieval period it was known as Semne, a petty-kingdom within Ulaid.

Contents

Map of Island Magee, Larne, UK

As part of an agricultural crop rotation programme of old beans were grown to supply nitrogen to the soil. "Bean Eaters" became a nickname for the people of Islandmagee.

It is the site of Northern Ireland's main power station Ballylumford and is the terminating point of the Scotland-Northern Ireland gas pipeline.

History

The name comes from Mac Aodha (Magee) a prominent Irish family in the area. An earlier Irish name was Rinn Seimhne (peninsula of (the district of) Seimhne) from an original tribal name.

The Bissett family held the tenancy of the peninsula in Elizabeth I's reign, their rent being an annual offering of goshawks, birds which bred on the rugged white chalk cliffs nearby. It was the site of a witch trial in 1710 where eight women were convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

Archaeology

  • Islandmagee is the home of the Ballylumford Dolmen. Known locally as the "Druid's Altar", this megalithic monument could date to 2500 BC (The Early Bronze Age), or be the remains of an earlier Neolithic simple passage tomb dating to c. 4000 BC. It consists of four upright stones, with a heavy capstone and a fallenstone within the structure. This may have been put there to block the entrance to the tomb.
  • Neolithic houses have been excavated at Ballyharry, on the Islandmagee peninsula. Finds included Neolithic pottery, flint arrowheads, javelin heads, polished stone axe fragments and quernstones.

    • Sport

  • Islandmagee F.C. plays in the Northern Amateur Football League.
  • Two golf clubs, Whitehead Golf Club (18 holes) and Larne Golf Club (9 holes) lie on the peninsula, as do two horseriding centres - Rocklyn stables and Islandmagee Riding Centre.
  • Fishing continues to be the most common sport practiced in the region.

    • Civil parish of Island Magee

    The peninsula is part of the parish of Island Magee. The boundaries of the parish and the peninsula match.

    Townlands

    The civil parish contains the following townlands:

    References

    Islandmagee Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA