52 H. C. Lawlor on 



and the grindstone and a small circular disc, of penny 

 size, are of Ballygowan, Co. Down, freestone. Speaking of 

 Ballygf)wan, Co. Down, much may be gained to aid in antiquarian 

 research by studying the names of townlands. I fear Eally- 

 kennedy and Ballyrickardmore as they now stand do not heli^ 

 us very much, tmt I find Ballykennedy identified by the late Bishop 

 Reeves with Balayncan of the Taxation Roll of 1306 and Balencan 

 granted to Robert Savage in 1348. I am unfortunately not 

 conversant with Irish myself, but I am creditably informed that 

 these names are merely mediasval anglicised corruptions of the 

 ancient Irish Bailyn Gabann or town of the Smiths. The present 

 Ballykennedy seems difficult to assimilate with the ancient 

 designation, but it must be remembered that in the Scottish 

 settlement of 16 10 — 1630 the old Irish names were only preserved 

 by their sound, rather than by written documents. The name 

 though now written Ballykennedy is still locally pronounced 

 " Ballykannidy." The name Ballyrickardmore, the large townland 

 of Richard, to distinguish it from the adjoining Ballyrickard Beg' 

 the small townland of Richard, presents more difficulty. To begin 

 with, Richard and Edward are 1 think names at first known in 

 Ireland after the Norman Invasion, so that we may take it for 

 granted that the names Bailyrickard More and Beg and the 

 adjoining Ballyedward can only owe their names to at the earliest, 

 the 1 2th or 13th centuries. 



We are here again indebted to Bishop Reeves in his '^ Eccle- 

 siastical Antiquities," pp. 264-269, for light on the original names 

 of places in this district, read in conjunction with the 6-inch 

 Ordnance Maps. The district where the Larne water and the 

 Six Mile water first rise was known as the "field or district of the 

 Hill of Glenn-an-Gabhann." Dr. Reeves quotes the Four Masters, 

 who recite two ancient verses, one of which names the place 

 " Ceann Gubha " (hill of grief). The other "Glen an Gabhann " 

 (the Glen of the Smiths). The latter is followed in the two 

 modern townlands of Ballygowan North and South, subdivisions 

 of the old Balli Gabhann (the Place of the Smiths). That Bally- 

 rickardmore was originallv a mediaeval cut-off from the larger 



