The Story of the Hillsborough Name

The Irish name An Dealgan is traditionally associated with “the thorn” or “little thorn.” The name reflects the landscape that existed here before the modern planned village was established.

Hillsborough is unusual among our Down entries because the English name is relatively recent, dating from the seventeenth century. The settlement was developed around Hillsborough Castle, which became the residence of the Hill family, later Marquesses of Downshire.

The area has much older roots. Before the modern village, the surrounding countryside was part of the Gaelic landscape of County Down, and the hill on which the castle now stands was a natural strategic location.

In the seventeenth century, Arthur Hill, an English settler, acquired lands in the area following the upheavals of the Plantation period. His family built a fortified house, which developed into the present Hillsborough Castle.

The castle became increasingly important as the Hill family rose in prominence. In the eighteenth century, the family became the Marquesses of Downshire, and Hillsborough developed as an estate village around their residence.

The village itself was carefully planned. Wide streets, stone buildings and formal architecture gave Hillsborough a distinctive appearance, much of which survives today.

The castle later acquired an importance far beyond the Downshire family.

In the twentieth century, Hillsborough Castle became the official residence of the British monarch in Northern Ireland and the principal residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It has hosted numerous important political meetings and visiting dignitaries.

The village therefore occupies an interesting place in Irish and British history: a settlement whose modern identity was created by a seventeenth-century estate but whose landscape has much deeper roots.

The surrounding area also has a strong connection with Irish linen. Like many parts of County Down, flax growing and linen production became important industries, supported by the region's fertile farmland and waterways.

Yet beneath the formal Georgian village and the castle lies the older Irish name:

An Dealgan.

A small thorn.

It is a wonderfully humble reminder of the landscape that existed here before the great estate, castle and political history.

Hillsborough is a beautiful example of how the layers of Irish history can sit almost on top of one another: an ancient Gaelic landscape, a seventeenth-century plantation estate, an elegant eighteenth-century village and, eventually, a place at the center of modern Northern Irish political life.