Crawfordsburn () is a small

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. The village, which is now effectively a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

, lies between Holywood and Bangor to the north of the A2 road, about 4 km west of Bangor city centre. Bounded to the north and north east by Crawfordsburn Country Park, the village attracts many visitors. It had a population of 587 people in the 2011 Census. the village is served by the nearby

Helen's Bay railway station Helen's Bay railway station serves Helen's Bay as well as the nearby village of Crawfordsburn in the townland of Ballygrot, County Down, Northern Ireland. History The station in the grand Scottish Baronial style, built in 1863, was the creation ...

History

Before the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ) was the organised Settler colonialism, colonisation (''Plantation (settlement or colony), plantation'') of Ulstera Provinces of Ireland, province of Irelandby people from Great ...

, the area of Crawfordsburn was known as Ballymullan (). It was named after a stream which flows through the village.

Places of interest

*The Old Inn, Crawfordsburn has been in existence since the 17th century. Records show this building to have been standing in its present form since 1614. There is evidence that substantial additions were made in the middle of the 18th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries,

Donaghadee Donaghadee ( , ) is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor, County Down, Bangor. It is in the Civil paris ...

was one of the principal cross-channel ports between

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. The mail coach making connections with the sailing packet, changed horses at The Old Inn at Crawfordsburn and so it came to be patronised by many notable people including

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's ...

, Thackeray, Dickens and Trollope. It was also frequented by

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

. *Crawfordsburn Orange Hall. At present it is used by the owners Crawfordsburn Chosen Few LOL 1091 who originally met in the old school house from 1905 and then bought their current building which is still in use to this day and continues to flourish with increased memberships. The hall is also used by Robert Whiteside Memorial LOL 1229 and Sir Henry Wilson RBP 1104. Also used by different community groups. *Crawfordsburn Scout Activity Centre is adjacent to the Country Park. It consists of 22 acres (9 hectares) of camping ground including several accommodation buildings. Originally part of the Sharman estate, it opened for Scout camping in October 1948.

People

* Samuel Hall-Thompson (1885–1954) was a Unionist politician born in Crawfordsburn.

Sport

Bryansburn Rangers F.C. are an intermediate football club founded in the nearby town of Bangor, however their home ground named Ballywooley is situated on the Crawfordsburn Road on the way into the village from Bangor.

2011 Census

Crawfordsburn is classified by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
/ref> as being within

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Metropolitan Urban Area (BMUA). On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 587 people living in Crawfordsburn. Of these: *18.2% were aged under 17 years and 27.4% were aged 65 and over *48.5% of the population were male and 51.5% were female *65.6% identified as Protestant, 23.4% as

non-religious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ration ...

and 10.1% as

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

specifically. *1.5% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed

References

External links

Crawfordsburn Country ParkCulture Northern Ireland
{{Authority control Villages in County Down Seaside resorts in Northern Ireland Civil parish of Bangor