Rostrevor - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Rostrevor is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

in County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. It is within the Newry and Mourne District Council

Newry and Mourne District Council

Newry and Mourne District Council is a local council in Northern Ireland. It includes much of the south of County Armagh and the south of County Down and has a population of approximately 93,400. Council headquarters are in Newry, the largest settlement and only city in the area; it has a...

area. It lies at the foot of Slieve Martin on the coast of Carlingford Lough

Carlingford Lough

Carlingford Lough is a glacial fjord or sea inlet that forms part of the border between Northern Ireland to the north and the Republic of Ireland to the south. On its northern shore is County Down and on its southern shore is County Louth...

. The Kilbroney River flows through the village.

Rostrevor had a population of 2,444 in the 2001 Census

United Kingdom Census 2001

A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

. The village is known for its folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

festival, Fiddler's Green Festival.

Name

Rostrevor was named by Edward Trevor who settled in the area in the early 17th century. Whilst it is accepted that the trevor part of the name derives from Edward's surname, there is confusion over the first element ros. Walter Harris writing in 1744 and Samuel Lewis writing in 1838 both attest the ros element as deriving from the name of Edward Trevor's wife Rose, whom he married in 1612. Hamilton, writing in 1915, discounts both and claims that Edward Trevor adopted the word ros (from ) meaning wood as it was very suitable for the area. Harold O'Sullivan states that Edward Trevor named the area after he got married to his second wife Rose Trevor, and that the name was corrupted over time into Rostrevor. Adding to the confusion is the usage in the past of Rostrevor, Rosstrevor, and Rosetrevor to refer to the area.

Today the spelling Rostrevor is used for the village, while the spelling Rosstrevor is used for the townland

Townland

A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...

the village resides in. Before Edward Trevor's renaming of the area it was formerly known as Caisleán Ruairí (Rory's castle).

Places of interest

Nearby Cloughmore

Cloughmore

Cloughmore, known locally as "The Big Stone" , is a huge granite boulder found about above the village of Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland, on a relatively flat area on the side of Slieve Martin.-Features:...

is a 30-ton granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

boulder

Boulder

In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....

perched on the slopes of Slieve Meen, 1000 ft above the village of Rostrevor, and known locally as 'the big stone'. It was deposited there by retreating glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

s during the Last Glacial Maximum

Last Glacial Maximum

The Last Glacial Maximum refers to a period in the Earth's climate history when ice sheets were at their maximum extension, between 26,500 and 19,000–20,000 years ago, marking the peak of the last glacial period. During this time, vast ice sheets covered much of North America, northern Europe and...

. However, local legend says that the stone was thrown by a giant

Giant (mythology)

The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...

from the Cooley Mountains, on the other side of Carlingford Lough

Carlingford Lough

. Walking around the stone seven times will allegedly bring good luck. On top of this the views from the stone are stunning looking out over County Louth and Armagh and of course Carlingford Lough.

Kilfeaghan Dolmen is situated on the main Kilkeel

Kilkeel

Kilkeel is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the main fishing port on the Down coast, and its harbour houses one of the largest fishing fleets in Ireland. It had a population of 6,338 people according to the 2001 Census...

to Newry

Newry

Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...

road about three and three quarter miles from Rostrevor. It is a prehistoric dolmen

Dolmen

A dolmen—also known as a portal tomb, portal grave, dolmain , cromlech , anta , Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Adamra , Ispun , Hunebed , dös , goindol or quoit—is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of...

and the site is dated between 2000 and 1000 BC. The capstone

Capstone

Capstone may refer to:* Coping , one of the finishing or protective stones that form the top of an exterior masonry wall or building* Capstone , a US government project about cryptographic standards...

is said to be one of the biggest in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

and is estimated to weigh between 35 and 40 tons. Excavations at the site earlier this century unearthed various bones and pottery.

The old church, supposedly built on an original site established by St Brónach

Brónach

Saint Brónach , sometimes anglicised to Bronagh, was an Irish holywoman, reputed founder and patron saint of Cell Brónche , now Kilbroney in County Down....

, stands in the graveyard on the Kilbroney road. It became a listed building in 1983.

In the villages Catholic church is the bell of Bronach, dating from around 900 A.D. There are many stories of how the bell used to scare locals walking past St Bronachs 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.

The village has 2 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

The Troubles in Rostrevor

The Troubles in Rostrevor recounts incidents during, and the effects of, The Troubles in Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland.Incidents in Rostrevor during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities:1983...

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

People

Rostrevor was the birthplace of Major General Robert Ross-of-Bladensburg
Robert Ross (general)
Robert Ross was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer who participated in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. He is most well known for the Burning of Washington, including the White House.-Early life:...

, a British commander during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

. 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.
Rostrevor is also the birthplace of Ben Dunne, founder of the chain store Dunnes Stores
Dunnes Stores
Dunnes Stores, also known as Dunnes, is a supermarket and clothing retail chain, that is based in Dublin, Ireland.The chain primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain has operations in Great Britain and Spain...

.
Peter McGrath, who managed the Down
Down GAA
The Down County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or Down GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Down...

Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...

team to All-Ireland
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the premier competition in Gaelic football, is a series of games organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association and played during the summer and early autumn...

titles in 1991 and 1994, was born in Rostrevor. He also got the minor team to an All-Ireland title in 1987 and the under 21 team to an All-Ireland final in 2009.
Sir Francis Stronge
Francis Stronge
Sir Francis William Stronge KCMG , was a senior British diplomat and the second son of Sir John Calvert Stronge and Lady Margaret Stronge...

lived in Kilbroney House.
Former Irish President Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese
Mary Patricia McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in...

and her family lived in Rostrevor village centre before she was elected to office in 1997.
Internationally acclaimed Irish Folk group The Sands Family
Tommy Sands (Irish folk singer)
Tommy Sands , Mayobridge, County Down, Northern Ireland, is a folk singer, song writer, radio broadcaster, and political activist. He performs with his 3 siblings as The Sands Family; solo as Tommy Sands; and with his son and daughter as Tommy Sands with Moya and Fionán Sands...

live in Rostrevor and the group's independent record label, Spring Records has its recording studio there

Education

St. Bronagh's Primary School
Killowen Primary School
Kilbroney Primary School

Horse Tram

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

2001 Census

Rostrevor is classified as an intermediate settlement by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie population between 2,250 and 4,500). On Census day (30 April 2001) there were 2,444 people living in Rostrevor. Of these:

25.7% were aged under 16 years and 17.8% were aged 60 and over
48.7% of the population were male and 51.3% were female
92.5% were from a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

background and 6.1% were from a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

background
5.1% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed.

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

Sport

St. Bronagh's GAA club, have won the Down Senior Football Championship on two occasions, 1976 and 1998 and the Down Junior Hurling Championship on one occasion in 1994. Rostrevor also has two soccer clubs competing in the Newry and Mourne District Leagues, the most successful of the two being Killowen Celtic who play in the Premier Division and in 2010 were winners of the Kehoe Cars Bessbrook Cup, defeating one of the most successful teams in the area, Windmill Stars by a winning margin of 5 goals to two.