placenamesBallynameen
Ballynameen’s history reaches back to a seventeenth-century hamlet, while nineteenth-century survey records preserve the voices of residents who knew its street and bridge.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Ballynameen · English · main form
Place & story
A hamlet before the later town
The local heritage panel in Garvagh identifies Ballynameen with the earlier hamlet of Ballinameen, established by George Canning in 1620. Canning had arrived in 1614 as an agent for London’s Ironmongers’ Company. The panel records the hamlet’s destruction during the 1641 rebellion and its subsequent re-establishment. It distinguishes this earlier settlement south of Garvagh from the later town developed by Paul Canning, giving Ballynameen a place in the area’s seventeenth-century settlement history. [2]
Residents supply the surveyors’ evidence
Ordnance Survey material from 1835–1837 preserves named local informants for Ballynameen’s street and bridge. Robert Barber, John Canders and John McAlister supplied information on the houses between the bridge and the head of the street. David and Quinton Miller, with McAlister, were associated with enlarging the bridge. These entries reveal residents contributing practical knowledge to the survey, while the street-and-crossing descriptions show Ballynameen as a recognisable settlement rather than simply a name on a map. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Derry
- Barony
- Coleraine
- Civil parish
- Desertoghill
- Coordinates
- 54.97760, -6.68690
- Logainm ID
- 1416663 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballynameen. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Welcome to Garvagh: heritage panel transcription · Coleraine Borough Council, Environment and Heritage Service and Northern Ireland Tourist Board; recorded by William Fischer Jr
- Desertoghill: index to Ordnance Survey Memoirs, volume 27 · Ordnance Survey Memoirs, 1835–1837; online local-history index
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-08-12. How this page was prepared.