Clough

Village in County Down, Northern Ireland

54°17′20″N 5°50′06″W / 54.289°N 5.835°W / 54.289; -5.835

Clough (/ˈklɒx/ KLOKH;^[1] from Irish an Chloch, meaning 'the stone') is a village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits about 3 miles from Dundrum on the A2 between Newcastle and Belfast. The A2 continues via Downpatrick and the coast via Strangford and the Portaferry – Strangford Ferry to Portaferry to Belfast, whilst most road traffic heads along from Clough along the A24 via Carryduff to Belfast. It had a population of 255 people in the 2001 census. Clough is situated within the Newry, Mourne and Down area.

Places of interest

Clough Castle, an excellent example of an Anglo-Norman motte-and-bailey castle with stone tower.

Etymology

A map of 1634 marked the village as Machaeracate and the castle is Cloch Mhachaire Cat "Stone castle of the plain of the cat". This comes from a local legend of the chase of magic cat.^[2]

References

^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
^ Muhr, Kay (2005). "An Elizabethan map of north-east Down". Lecale Review. 3: 11.