village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
in
County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...
,
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 ...
. It lies near
Donaghcloney
Donaghcloney or Donacloney ()Dromore. In the 2021 census it had a population of 421 people. It is within the
Craigavon Borough Council
Craigavon Borough Council was a local council in counties Armagh, Down and Antrim, in Northern Ireland. It merged with Armagh City and District Council and Banbridge District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Nor ...
area.
The village is named after an old inn called the Black Skull, which had a picture of a black man's head on its sign. A grisly local tale tells how a black man was beheaded and his skull mounted above the door of the Inn. Formerly, the area was known as Ballygunaghan (),Placenames Database of Ireland /ref> after the
townland
A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...
in which it lies.
See also
*
List of towns and villages in Northern Ireland
This is an alphabetical list of towns and villages in Northern Ireland. For a list sorted by population, see the list of settlements in Northern Ireland by population. The towns of Armagh, Lisburn and Newry are also classed as cities (see city ...