Millisle or Mill Isle (from Scots mill + isle, meaning "the meadow of the mill"[1]) is a village on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Donaghadee. It is situated in the townlands of Ballymacruise (from Irish Baile Mhic Naosa MacNeice’s townland)[2] and Ballycopeland (from Irish Baile Chóplainn Copeland's townland),[3] the civil parish of Donaghadee and the historic barony of Ards Lower.[4][5] It had a population of 2,318 people in the 2011 Census.[6]
Millisle
| |
---|---|
Millisle Main Street, August 2006 | |
Location within County Down | |
Population | 2,318 (2011 Census) |
District | |
County | |
Country | Northern Ireland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | NEWTOWNARDS |
Postcode district | BT22 |
Dialling code | 028 |
Police | Northern Ireland |
Fire | Northern Ireland |
Ambulance | Northern Ireland |
UK Parliament | |
The name Millisle is possibly derived from Irish Baile an Mhuilin Townland of the mill which was referenced in the seventeenth century. Alternatively it may have been borrowed by the Scottish settlers to the area from the hamlet of Millisle in Wigtownshire.[7]
In the 2011 Census Millisle had a population of 2,318 people (991 households).[6] Millisle is classified as a village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with population between 1,000 and 2,250). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 1,800 people living in Millisle. Of these:
Some of the Jewish children who arrived in the UK in 1939 under the Kindertransport program were sent to Northern Ireland. Many of them were looked after by foster parents but others went to the Millisle Refugee Farm ("Magill's Farm", on the Woburn Road) which took refugees from May 1938 until its closure in 1948.[9]
Abbey Villa F.C. play association football in the Northern Amateur Football League.