Ballywalter Park is a stately home on the outskirts of Ballywalter. It is open to the public, by appointment only, as the Mulholland family still lives on the estate. The house is the ancestral seat of The 6th Baron Dunleath. The park plays host to the Northern Ireland Game Fair, which has attracted nearly 40,000 people over a single weekend. Ballywalter Park is a Grade A listed stately home, deemed to be of exceptional architectural importance.
On the morning of10 June 1798, a force of United Irishmen, mainly from Bangor, Donaghadee, Greyabbey and Ballywalter, attempted to occupy the town of Newtownards. They were met with musket fire from the market house and among those killed was James Cain, an 18-year old man from Ballyferris outside Ballywalter. Cain was buried in Whitechurch graveyard. The extent to which the people of Ballywalter were involved in the 1798 Rebellion is illustrated by an announcement in the Freeman's Journal on 11 August 1798, which stated: "...the magnitude of the punishment of many districts of County Down may be conceived from this single fact-of the inhabitants of the little village of Ballywalter nine men were actually killed and thirteen returned wounded, victims of their folly. If a trifling village suffered so much what must have been the aggregate loss in those parts of the country which were in a state of rebellion." A number of Presbyterian ministers in the Ards were deemed to have taken part in the rebellion and were tried, found guilty, and executed. Among the executed was a minister from near Ballywalter, Rev. Robert Goudy of Dunover. After the insurrection, bands of soldiers and yeomen scoured the country looking for United Irishmen. It is said locally that some Ballywalter men escaped capture by spending days at sea, hiding behind the Long Rock. It is recorded that the Ballywalter lifeboat saved 154 lives between the late 1800's and its disbandment. By 1906, the coastguards had been withdrawn from the village and there was some difficulty in finding a crew to man the lifeboat, so it too was withdrawn.
Population
2011 census
In the 2011 census, Ballywalter had a population of 2,027 people.
2001 census
Ballywalter is classified as a village. On census day there were 1,416 people living in Ballywalter. Of these:
18.5 percent were aged under 16 years and 27.0 percent were aged 60 and over
48.9 percent of the population were male and 51.1 percent were female
1.0 percent were from a Catholic background and 95.7 percent were from a Protestant background
4.6 percent of persons aged 16–74 were unemployed
2.3 percent of inhabitants identified as neither male nor female
A Loyal Orange Lodge, working under the authority of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, sits in the Orange Hall, Main Street, Ballywalter. It takes the title of Ballywalter Heroes Loyal Orange Lodge, number 1884, and is itself part of the Upper Ards District LOL No 11, in the County Down Grand Orange Lodge. It was first formed in the village in the mid-19th century and has had continued membership to the present day.
Sport
has become well known, due to the talent in the younger teams, right through to the runner-up league and cup team, the Ballywalter rec u17s.
People
Thomas Jamison, born in Ballywalter, became a surgeon, government official, mercantile trader and land owner in Sydney, Australia.
