Corporation

The name of the townland should be understood in the context of the seventeenth-century plantation settlement. The town was originallt called Inver Beg after the now culverted stream which ran past the abbey. InverBeg means 'Mouth of the Waters - small". Before that the area was known as Inber Bece, alluding to the finding of the skull of Bece, a pet dog, of one Bredcán or Brecán after his shipwreck. This drowning was linked back tothe whirlpool of Core Brecain, then understood to be located off Rathlin Island. The area was also known as The Vale of Angels, as Saint Patrick once rested there and is said to have had a vision filled with angels. The name Bangor is from the Irish word Beannchor meaning a horned or peaked curve or perhaps a staked enclosure, perhaps (or perhaps not) as the shape of Bangor Bay resembles the horns of a bull. It may also be linked to Beanna, Irish for cliffs. So that's six names for the area!