Every place name along this coast is doing some quiet storytelling, once you know what to listen for. There are roughly 6,700 recorded placenames in Northern Ireland, and North Antrim’s are mostly Irish-language in origin, describing a landscape feature, a colour, a use, or an owner.
Portrush itself
Portrush comes from Port Ros — “the port on the point,” or promontory — a description that still fits the town exactly, built as it is on a narrow headland jutting into the sea.
Forts and dwellings
Dún means a king’s fort, giving Dunluce — “the strong fort” — and Dunseverick, “Sobhairce’s fort,” once seat of the northern kings on the road to Tara. Ráth means a ring fort, giving Rathmore and Ramore — there was once a large fort at Ramore Head itself, now without a visible trace. Lios, a fortified dwelling, survives in names like Liscolman.
Colours, sizes, and the “port” names
Common descriptive elements recur across the map: mór (big), beag (small), dubh (black), buí (yellow), dearg (red), and sean (old). Along the coast itself, “Port” names describe what each inlet was for or looked like: Portandoo, “the wee black port”; Portstewart’s older name, Port na Binne Uaine, “port of the green hill”; Port Bradden, “port of the salmon”; and Port Scadden, “port of the herring” — a name locals confirm by the herring once landed there.
Churches and animals
Cill, teampal, and donagh all signal a church site — Templastragh and Donaghmore both carry this root. Animal names turn up too: Crocnamac is locally believed to mean “hill of the pigs,” and Portnahapple, “port of the horses.”
An inexact science
Much of this etymology comes with genuine uncertainty attached. The Ulster Placenames Project (Queen’s University, 1990s) ran out of funding before it reached the Ballintoy parish, and the 1832 Ordnance Survey recorded many names phonetically from local pronunciation — meaning multiple plausible interpretations often exist side by side. It’s less a settled dictionary than a living local folklore, still argued over in exactly the way good placename history should be.