Millisle or Mill Isle (from Scots mill + isle, meaning "the meadow of the mill" ) is a village on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is about 3 mi south of Donaghadee. It is situated in the townlands of Ballymacruise and Ballycopeland, the civil parish of Donaghadee and the historic barony of Ards Lower. It had a population of 2,318 people in the 2011 Census.

Etymology

The name Millisle is possibly derived 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.

Population

In the 2011 Census Millisle had a population of 2,318 people (991 households). 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:

History

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. In 1944, Millisle Airfield begun constructed but was halted after the ground being found unstable. The airfield was intended for the USAAF. Only 2 concrete runways remain today.

Places of interest

Sport

Abbey Villa F.C. play association football in the Northern Amateur Football League.

People