Straid

It lies at the centre of the townland of Straidlands, in the Civil Parish of Ballynure within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area, and in the former barony of Belfast Lower.

In recent years, development has been concentrated between Main Street and Irish Hill Road.

The existence of the rath (one of many in the area) was noted in the 1839 Ordnance Survey Memoirs on the land of James Boyd, but by 1875 it was said to have been destroyed.

Tom Shaw writes: "The cockfighting pit, which had been a place for vice of the worst kind, became a preaching point where many were won to Christ.

Public bars began to close, and profanity and drunkenness, which characterized many lives, were set aside as the Spirit of God moved through the community.

At one of these evening gatherings, some of the new converts gave testimony, and Bain preached two sermons.

Letters should be addressed, Straid, Ballyclare[8]Although a small village, it gave the name "Straidlands" to the "townland" of the area.

A mining village for many years, there is an outcrop of bauxite or Aluminium ore in Irish hill.

The woods at the top of the hill have a distinctive gap where a hurricane in the early 1920s blew down part of the forest.

In the 2011 Census, Straid had a population of 384 people owing to the building of a housing development in 2010.