Blackskull

Village in County Down, Northern Ireland

Human settlement in Northern Ireland

List of places: UK; Northern Ireland; Down

54°24′10″N 6°14′26″W / 54.402865°N 6.240470°W / 54.402865; -6.240470

Blackskull is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies near Donaghcloney and Dromore. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 168 people. It is within the Craigavon Borough Council area.

The village is named after an old inn called the Black Skull, which had a picture of a black man's head on its sign. A grisly local tale tells how a black man was beheaded and his skull mounted above the door of the Inn.^[1] Formerly, the area was known as Ballygunaghan (from Irish Baile Uí Dhuinneagáin 'O'Donegan's settlement'),^[2]^[3] after the townland in which it lies.