1783 Taylor & Skinner Holywood, Bangor, Newtownards, Dundonald & Donaghadee, Ireland Road Map
This hand-coloured antique Irish road map, published in 1783, is Map 6 from the second revised edition of Taylor & Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland. Surveyed in 1777 and corrected down to 1783, it records the historic road network through Holywood, Cultra, Crawfordsburn, Bangor, Newtownards, Dundonald and Donaghadee in County Down.
The southern section follows the road through Holywood and Cultra, with numerous estates, country houses and contemporary landowners identified beside the route. Roads through Dundonald and the surrounding countryside are also shown, together with churches, hills, turnpikes and connecting routes.
Continuing along the coast, the engraving records Crawfordsburn and Bangor, with Bangor prominently shown beside the water and several roads branching inland. Nearby properties and estates include Rathgill, Ballyleidy, Ballywilliam and other named residences characteristic of Taylor & Skinner’s detailed survey.
From Bangor, the road network continues towards Newtownards, where several important routes converge. Newtownards appears as a substantial road junction, with roads leading towards Portaferry, Bangor and Donaghadee, together with surrounding estates and country houses.
At the northern end of the sheet, Donaghadee is clearly engraved on the coast, with the road continuing into the town and a connecting Portaferry Road marked nearby. The coastal geography and surrounding roads make this section particularly distinctive.
The engraving preserves several historical place-name forms. Holywood appears as “Hollywood,” while Newtownards is engraved as “Newtown Ardes.” Modern spellings are used throughout this product description to make the locations easier to identify, while the original spellings remain visible on the antique map itself.
The large engraved County Down designation provides a strong geographical reference, while the map also records numerous churches, turnpikes, hills, estates, country houses, coastal features and side roads across eastern County Down.
As throughout Taylor & Skinner’s survey, the many named properties and contemporary landowners give the map additional interest for Irish local history, genealogy and family-history research.
The original heading “Road from Dublin to Donaghadee” identifies this sheet as part of the principal route from Dublin towards the County Down coast, with Map 6 concentrating particularly on Holywood, Bangor, Newtownards, Dundonald and Donaghadee.
Identified as Map 6 in Taylor & Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland, it forms part of their extensive late-18th-century survey of Ireland’s principal roads.