Crumlin () is a town in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

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 ...

Geography

Crumlin is 20 miles (32 km) west of

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 ...

city centre and 3 miles (4.6 km) from

Belfast International Airport Belfast International Airport is an international airport northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and is the main airport for the city of Belfast. Until 1983, it was known as Aldergrove Airport, after the nearby village of Aldergrove, Cou ...

at Aldergrove. It is part of

Antrim and Newtownabbey Antrim and Newtownabbey is a local government district in Northern Ireland. The district was created on 1 April 2015 by merging the Borough of Antrim with the Borough of Newtownabbey. The local authority is Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Co ...

district and had a population of 5,366 people in the 2021 census. Crumlin covers 1.28 square km or 0.5 square miles. The Crumlin river (also known as the Camlin river) flows through the village from

Divis Divis (; ) is a hill and area of sprawling moorland north-west of Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. With a height of 1,568 ft (478 m), it is the highest of the Belfast Hills. It is joined with the neighbouring Black Mountain, a ...

Mountain to

Lough Neagh Lough Neagh ( ; ) is a freshwater lake in Northern Ireland and is the largest lake on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles. It has a surface area of and is about long and wide. According to Northern Ireland Water, it supplies 4 ...

History

There are records of a settlement at Crumlin going back to at least 1306. The Taxation of the Dioceses, compiled in that year 1306, notes "The Church of Camelyn, 2 marks, Tenth 2s. 8d." Bishop Reeves says, "It is so called from a tortuous stream" (the crooked line). Camlin was anciently a Bishop's Mensal, and services were held in the church up to 1661, but it was destroyed by the army of

King James II James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685, until he was deposed in the 1688 Glori ...

in 1689 after which the locals moved to

Glenavy Glenavy () is a village and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is approximately 11 miles west of Belfast and eight miles north-west of Lisburn, and sits on the banks of the Glenavy river. In the 2011 census it had a population ...

Parish Church. According to a survey carried out in 1808, it had a population of 430 people, a school and a post-office. Linen weaving and labouring were the main forms of employment. By 1849 it had its own electoral division. The town's old linen mill was built in 1809. A stone clock tower, built in 1897 as a memorial to a member of the Pakenham family who were landlords in the area, stands at the top of the village near the former railway station. On 13 September 1902, the Crumlin meteorite landed near the village. When it first hit the atmosphere it was travelling at 30,000 miles an hour, and the sonic boom was heard up to 10 miles away. Locals heard various strange noises and some of them likened it to a train running off the track or a boiler exploding in the nearby mill or a swarm of bees. It landed on Andrew Walker's farm and was soon bought and taken away to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

in London. It has now been loaned to the

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures ...

in Belfast for 3 years and came back to Northern Ireland in February 2023. In 1972, during

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

, a bomb went off prematurely near Crumlin, killing two IRA members. Crumlin's proximity to Belfast has led to it becoming a local business area, with international venues, including hosting the headquarters of Randox Laboratories and

Lidl Lidl ( ) is a trademark, used by two Germany, German international discount supermarket, discount retailer chain store, chains that operates over 12,600 stores. The ''LD Stiftung'' operates the stores in Germany and the ''Lidl Stiftung & Co. K ...

in Northern Ireland.

Education

Schools in the area include: * Crumlin Integrated College *St. Joseph's Primary School *Crumlin Integrated Primary *Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach *Naíscoil Ghleann Darach *Sleepy Hollow Day Nursery

Irish language

In recent years, a growing Irish-speaking community has evolved in the area and Crumlin now caters for both pre-school and primary school education through the medium of Irish. Naíscoil and Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach now has almost 70 children attending the Irish medium school and almost 30 in the nursery, with 15 members of staff. The Gaelscoil (primary school) is recognised by the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. Two voluntary groups, ''Cumann Gaeilge'' and ''Cairde Ghleann Darach'', encourage and support the school and promotion of the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

. The local societies help organise fund-raisers for the local schools and clubs and organise Irish language classes, an annual Irish language funday, a céilí, a bi-lingual pub quiz, and other events in the area.

Sport

Crumlin United F.C provides

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

for more than 300 men, women, boys and girls, from under-6 to senior level. Broader membership of approx. 400. Crumlin United own a 9-acre ground with grass playing surfaces and a full size 3G playing service. The team entered the County Antrim Senior Shield in 2018, bringing competitive Senior Football to the village of Crumlin for the first time in history. St James' Aldergrove GAC is a well established

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

with 13 teams incorporating men's and ladies football as well as being strongly represented at all levels underage. The club currently has a player base in excess of 300 and broader membership of approx. 500. The Club provides structured

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

for boys and girls, as well as social and cultural events. The senior men's team was promoted to Division 1 in 2012 for the first time in the club's history and stayed there until relegation in 2017. They also won the Antrim Intermediate Championship in 2019 for the first time since 1977 and represented Antrim in the Ulster Intermediate Championship. Crumlin river hosts fishing and angling for

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

and

dollaghan Dollaghan are a variety of brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') native to Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, and many of its tributaries. They are a potamodromous migratory trout spending much of the year in the lough, returning to the rivers in autumn to ...

. Community Netball is also offered Crumlin Leisure Centre as well as martial arts.

Community relations

In the past,

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...

parades occurred without incident and the main street in July is decorated with an Orange Arch which flies unionist flags from it. In 2012,

The Twelfth The Twelfth (also called Orangemens' Day) is a primarily Ulster Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It began in the late 18th century in Ulster. It celebrates the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant King William of Ora ...

celebration for a wider area was held in Crumlin for the first time in 12 years, a march which surpassed previous parades in terms of size and the number of bands and participants taking part. Some pre-march tension was evident and a

Parades Commission The Parades Commission is a quasi-judicial non-departmental public body responsible for placing restrictions on any parades in Northern Ireland it deems contentious or offensive. It is composed of seven members, all of whom are appointed by the ...

determination appeared to rule in favour of the residents opposed to the parade based on its size and because they felt they weren't given adequate notice by the organisers of the parade. Talks were held between the residents and organisers, leading to the parade passing off peacefully. The agreement was heralded as a success and as a possible blueprint for other contentious marches.

Demography

As of the 2021 census, Crumlin had a population of 5,366 people. Of these: *80.0% were from a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

background and 13.6% were from a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

or other Christian background. *63.7% identified as Irish, 17.4% identified as British and 25.0% identified as Northern Irish. As the time of the 2011 census, Crumlin had a population of 5,140 people (1,777 households). On Census day in 2011: *27.4% were aged under 16 and 9.5% were aged 65 and over *48.3% of the population were male and 51.7% were female *80.3% were from a

background and 16.7% were from a

or other Christian background *4.2% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed. * 98.8% of the population are Caucasian * 2.1% of residents were born outside Britain or Ireland Crumlin has several churches, including

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

, Evangelical Presbyterian and Non-Subscribing.

Mass is held regularly at St Joseph's Primary School.

Transport

Crumlin railway station opened on 13 November 1871 but is now closed. Translink runs an

Ulsterbus Ulsterbus is a public transport operator in Northern Ireland and operates bus services outside Belfast. It is part of Translink (Northern Ireland), Translink, the brand name for the subsidiary operating companies of the Northern Ireland Transpor ...

service from Crumlin to

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

, Antrim,

and

city centre.

Notable people

James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 January 19, 1997) was an American poet, novelist, critic, and lecturer. He was appointed the 18th United States Poet Laureate in 1966. His other accolades included the National Book Award for Poetry a ...

(1775/1776–1798), Presbyterian barrister and United Irishman * Peter FitzGerald (born 1950), biochemist and businessman, founder and owner of Randox

References

{{authority control Villages in County Antrim