placenamesBallybogy
Baile an Bhogaigh
Ballybogy, often written Ballybogey, grew from a crossroads settlement into a larger twentieth-century village. Nearby Kilmoyle School and an account of an outdoor meeting during the 1859 revival preserve different aspects of its community history.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile an Bhogaigh · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballybogy · English · main form
- Ballybogey · English · main form · local name
Place & story
From crossroads cluster to village
The Northern Area Plan traces Ballybogy’s beginnings to the junction of the Ballybogy, Benvardin and Ballindreen roads. Public housing in the 1950s and 1960s substantially enlarged that small cluster, followed by private development to the south and west. This explains a settlement whose modern extent owes much to post-war housing rather than a large historic town centre. Its road connections with Ballymoney and Coleraine also helped shape its role as a residential village between the two towns. [2]
Kilmoyle School’s changing home
Kilmoyle Primary School serves the area from Benvardin Road, a short distance outside Ballybogey. Its own prospectus traces the school’s history to the mid-nineteenth century, with the earlier building farther along the road. The present site opened in September 1958, and a nursery unit was added in the mid-1980s. Those dates distinguish the age of the institution from the buildings used by later pupils, and place its development alongside the village’s post-war expansion. [3]
An outdoor meeting in 1859
A note by the Reverend John Alexander, published in the Coleraine Chronicle on 18 June 1859, describes an outdoor religious meeting at Ballybogey during the Ulster revival. Alexander estimated that about fifteen hundred people attended and named MacAfee and Boyle among the speakers. He linked it with prayer meetings at Damhead, Cloyfin and Ballyrashane. His testimony records the scale and intensity perceived by a participant; its religious interpretation and crowd estimate belong to that contemporary account. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Dunluce Lower
- Civil parish
- Dunluce
- Coordinates
- 55.12667, -6.55763 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 62087 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballybogy. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Northern Area Plan 2016, Volume 2: Ballybogy settlement designation · Department of the Environment / Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
- Kilmoyle Primary School and Nursery prospectus: school history, page 3 · Kilmoyle Primary School
- Ballybogey: John Alexander’s note, Coleraine Chronicle, 18 June 1859 · John Alexander; historical newspaper extract reproduced by UK Wells
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.