Rostrevor () is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

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 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It lies at the foot of Slieve Martin on the coast of

Carlingford Lough Carlingford Lough (, Ulster Scots: ''Carlinford Loch'') is a glacial fjord or sea inlet in northeastern Ireland, forming part of the border between Northern Ireland to the north and the Republic of Ireland to the south. On its northern shore i ...

, near

Warrenpoint Warrenpoint ( ga, An Pointe) is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is beside t ...

. The Kilbroney River flows through the village and

Rostrevor Forest Rostrevor Forest is located near the village of Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Carlingford Lough, in the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The first trees, primarily sitka spruce, dougla ...

is nearby. It is within

Newry, Mourne and Down District Ulster Scots: ''Newrie, Morne an Doon'' , settlement_type = District , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_type1 = Constituent country , subdivision_type2 = , subdivision_type3 = , subdivisi ...

. Rostrevor had a population of 2,800 in the 2011 Census. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright.

Name

The first part of the name "Rostrevor" comes from the Irish word ''ros'', meaning a wood or wooded headland.Placenames NI: Rostrevor
/ref> The second part of the name comes from Sir Edward Trevor from

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

in Wales, who settled in the area in the early 17th century and was succeeded by his son Marcus Trevor, who later became

Viscount Dungannon Viscount Dungannon is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation came in 1662 when Marcus Trevor was made Baron Trevor, of Rostrevor in the County of Down, and Viscount Dungannon. These titles became extinct ...

. Walter Harris, writing in 1744, mistakenly believed that the first part of the name came from Sir Edward Trevor's wife Rose, a daughter of

Henry Ussher Henry Ussher (1550 – 2 April 1613) was an Irish Protestant churchman, a founder of Trinity College, Dublin, and Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh. Life The second of five sons of Thomas Ussher by Margaret (d. January 1597), daughter of H ...

Archbishop of Armagh In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

. His etymology was later repeated by some other writers. Before Sir Edward Trevor's renaming of the area it was known as ''Caisleán Ruaidhrí'' ( en, Rory's castle), anglicised "Castle Rory" or "Castle Roe", after one of the

Magennis Magennis ( ga, Mac Aonghusa), also spelled Maguiness, Maginnis, Magenis, McGinnis, or McGuinness, is an Celtic_onomastics#Surnames, Irish surname, meaning the "son of Angus", which in eastern Ulster was commonly pronounced in Irish as ''Mac Aong ...

lords of

Iveagh Iveagh ( ; ) is the name of several historical territorial divisions in what is now County Down, Northern Ireland. Originally it was a Gaelic Irish territory, ruled by the ''Uí Echach Cobo'' and part of the overkingdom of Ulaid. From the 12th c ...

. Today the spelling ''Rostrevor'' is used for the village, while the spelling ''Rosstrevor'' is used for the

Places of interest

Nearby

Cloughmore Cloughmore or Cloghmore (), known locally as "The Big Stone", is a huge granite boulder perched on a mountainside almost above the village of Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits on the slopes of Slieve Martin in Kilbroney Park, o ...

is a 50-ton

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

perched on the slopes of Slieve Martin, 1,000 ft above the village of Rostrevor, and known locally as 'the big stone'. It was deposited there by retreating

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s during the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

. Local legend states that the stone was thrown by Irish mythological hero and frequent

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

Finn McCool Fionn mac Cumhaill ( ; Old Irish language, Old and mga, Find or ''mac Cumail'' or ''mac Umaill''), often anglicized Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish mythology, Scottish and Manx folklore. He ...

from the

Cooley Mountains The Cooley Mountains () are on the Cooley Peninsula in northeast County Louth in Ireland. They consist of two ridges running northwest to southeast, separated by the valley of Glenmore with the Big River running through it. Slieve Foy, at , ...

, on the other side of

, to settle a fight with a local frost-giant named Ruiscairre, burying him underneath the boulder. Walking around the stone seven times will allegedly bring good luck. The old church, supposedly built on an original site established by St

Brónach ) , patronage= , holiday= Saint Brónach (sometimes anglicised to Bronagh) was a 6th-century holy woman from Ireland, the reputed founder and patron saint of ''Cell Brónche'' ("church of Brónach"), now Kilbroney, in County Down, Northern Ireland. ...

, stands in the graveyard on the Kilbroney road. It became a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1983. In the village's Catholic church is the bell of Brónach, dating from around 900 A.D. There are many stories of how the bell used to scare locals walking past St Bronach's church on stormy nights. All they could hear was a mighty sound and did not know the source; many believed it to be a calling from God. It was said that the ringing of the bell warned of rough water on the lough. In 1885, the bell was found in the fork of an old oak tree, where it had been hidden many years before, probably at the time of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. The village has two rivers, the Ghan and the Fairy Glen, so named because many fairies are suspected of living along the banks of the river.

The Troubles

For more information see The Troubles in Rostrevor, which includes a list of incidents in Rostrevor during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities.

People

*Rostrevor is believed to be the birthplace of

Somerled Somerled (died 1164), known in Middle Irish as Somairle, Somhairle, and Somhairlidh, and in Old Norse as Sumarliði , was a mid-12th-century Norse-Gaelic lord who, through marital alliance and military conquest, rose in prominence to create the ...

, founder of Clan Donald and Lord of Argyll, Kintyre and Lorne, in the mid 12th century. *Rostrevor was the birthplace of Major General Robert Ross-of-Bladensburg, a British commander during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. Ross's Monument stands above the Warrenpoint Road on the edge of the village. It is a tall granite obelisk erected to his memory in 1826. The Ross Family lived at

Kilbroney Park Kilbroney Park (Irish: Páirc Chill Bhrónai) is a park near Rostrevor in Northern Ireland. Formerly a country estate, it was visited by William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Dickens and Seamus Heaney and may have been the inspiration for Narnia ...

. *Rostrevor is the birthplace of

Ben Dunne Bernard Dunne (19 May 1908 – 14 April 1983) was an Irish businessman who was the founder and chairman of Dunnes Stores. Early life Ben Dunne was born as Bernard Dunn in the village of Rostrevor in County Down, Ireland in 1908. He a was the el ...

, founder of the chain store

Dunnes Stores Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain also has operations in Spain, and formerly in England and Scotland. The fo ...

. * Sir Francis Stronge lived in Kilbroney House. *Former Irish President

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ga, Máire Pádraigín Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. She is an academic ...

and her family lived in Rostrevor village centre before she was elected to office in 1997. *Irish Folk group The Sands Family live in Rostrevor. * Another resident of Rostrevor for a time was Eurovision winner, Dana. * T. K. Whitaker, economist and a pivotal figure in the development of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

, was born in Rostrevor to a father from

County Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Sovereign state, Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces o ...

and a mother from

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

. The family later moved to

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

. *

Catherine McGrath Catherine McGrath (born 9 June 1997) is a Northern Irish country music singer and songwriter. Career Early life Born in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland, McGrath learned guitar from her grandmother, who taught her to play and sing "The Lion Sleeps T ...

, country singer, is from the village. *

Cathal McCabe Cathal McCabe (born 1963 in County Down, Northern Ireland), grew up in Warrenpoint. Educated at St Colman's College, Newry, and at the universities of York and Oxford, he lived in Poland for fifteen years where he lectured at the University of Łó ...

, poet, who grew up in nearby Warrenpoint, has lived in and near Rostrevor since 2004. * Laurence McGivern, Irish Paralympic swimmer and World Bronze Medalist (Canada 2013) was also born in Rostrevor.

Education

*Kilbroney Integrated Primary School *Killowen Primary School *St. Bronagh's Primary School *Ywam Rostrevor

Horse Tram

Rostrevor Tram station opened on 1 August 1877 with a horse-drawn tram service to Warrenpoint. It closed in February 1915.

Demography

On Census Day (27 March 2011) the usually resident population of Rostrevor Settlement was 2,800, accounting for 0.15% of the NI total. Of these: * 21.14% were under 16 years old and 14.57% were aged 65 and above; * 48.68% of the population were male and 51.32% were female; and * 88.96% were from a Catholic community background and 7.75% were from a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' community background.

Sport

The local

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

(GAA) club is St Bronagh's. The local

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club is Rossowen F.C.

References

External links

Ywam Rostrevor
{{authority control Villages in County Down Townlands of County Down Seaside resorts in Northern Ireland Civil parish of Kilbroney, County Down