Ballee (from Irish Baile Aodha, meaning "Hugh’s townland") is a townland, containing a large

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

off the Antrim Road in South

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

, in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

History

The Ballee estate is divided into different separate estates: Drumtara to the south, Lettercreeve to the north, Shanlieve and Shancoole to the West, and Shanowen, Kincora and Lanntara to the East. Lettercreeve comprises mainly rows of two or three-storey

terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s parallel to the street, or in the Radburn layout with some of the

s not facing the street, but onto a pedestrian path, as well as some 2 storey blocks of

flats Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Apartment, known as a flat in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), a two-dimens ...

. Shanlieve and Shancoole comprise distinctively-shaped buildings from single-storey

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

s up to three storey blocks of

. Much of the Kincora and especially Shanowen areas have been demolished in recent years, leaving green spaces behind. These areas, as well as Drumtara and Lanntara, also consist of distinctively-shaped buildings from single-storey

s up to two storey houses and blocks of

. In 2001, Drumtara was 0-10% Catholic, while the rest of the Ballee estate was 10-20% Catholic.

Amenities

In the estate there are many grassy areas, often where houses have been demolished, a park, Ballee

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

which closed in 2010, a public house and a few retail premises. Near the estate on the Old Antrim Road is Ballee

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, as well as Ballee

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

, on the Toome Road in the townland, near to Ballymena Free Presbyterian

, which is also in Ballee townland. Ballee Community High School was a state secondary school in Ballee that closed in 2014. Camphill

is now the only primary school in the townland.

References

{{County Antrim Housing estates in Northern Ireland Ballymena County Antrim Townlands of County Antrim