Location of Ballymoney

Today the town of Ballymoney, and the countryside surrounding it, is situated in County Antrim within a Local Government District created in 1973, which, upon the granting of a charter in 1977, became the Borough of Ballymoney.

Before 1973 there was Ballymoney Urban District which was the town and Ballymoney Rural District which covered the countryside stretching from just outside Portrush in the north to Rasharkin and Dunloy in the south and Loughguile and Cloughmills in the east. These divisions had been in place since 1898.

Before 1898 the administrative divisions were somewhat different. From the seventeenth century onwards the basic administrative unit was the townland. From the 1600s until the middle of the nineteenth century groups of townlands were organised under civil parishes, these parishes were further organised under baronies, and baronies were organised under counties.

The link Counties and Baronies of Ulster will show you the nine counties of the historic province of Ulster and the baronies in each county. The link Baronies and Parishes of North Antrim will show you the baronies and parishes which make up the North Antrim area. The link Townlands of North Antrim will provide you with lists of townlands in some of the parishes in North Antrim and a map of all of the townlands in the parishes of Ballymoney and Kilraghts.

With the introduction of the Poor Law in the 1840s, new administrative divisions were introduced based on the Poor Law Unions. Poor Law Unions were centred on the main market towns in the province and each Poor Law Union was further divided into District Electoral Divisions. See the link Poor Law Unions & Electoral Divisions for more information.

Under the Local Government Act of 1898 another set of administrative divisions was introduced based on County Councils, Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils, as described in the second paragraph above. To some extent these new divisions simply took over the older, Poor Law Union, divisions but, as usual, there was not a perfect match. The townland continued as the basic unit of administration and addresses in the rural areas. The 1970s saw the introduction of new Local Government Districts with addresses in the countryside based on road numbers rather than townlands.

It now looks as if we are about to experience new administrative divisions in the near future.