Ballymena, United Kingdom

In 1315, Edward Bruce (brother of Scottish king Robert the Bruce) invaded the Earldom of Ulster, opening up another front in the war against the English. On 10 September 1315, at the Battle of Connor, near Ballymena, Edward's army defeated the army of Richard de Burgh, the Anglo-Norman Earl of Ulster.

On 10 May 1607, during the Plantation of Ulster, King James I of England granted the native Irish chief, Ruairí Óg MacQuillan, the Ballymena Estate. The estate passed through several owners, eventually passing into the possession of William Adair, a Scottish laird from Kinhilt in southwestern Scotland. The estate was temporarily renamed "Kinhilstown" after Adair's lands in Scotland. The original castle of Ballymena was built in the early 17th century, situated to take advantage of an ancient ford on the River Braid. In 1626 Charles I confirmed the grant of the Ballymena Estate to William Adair, giving him the right to hold a market at Ballymena every Saturday. He hired local Irish as workers on the estate; they served as tenant farmers for much of the next two centuries and more. Galgorm nearby was granted to Sir Faithful Fortescue. In 1618 he built the Castle, which still exists.

During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the local Ballymena garrison were defeated by Irish rebels in the battle of Bundooragh. In 1690, during the Williamite-Jacobite War, Williamite general the Duke of Württemberg used Galgorm Castle as his headquarters. Sir Robert Adair raised a Regiment of Foot for King William III and fought at the Battle of the Boyne.

Ballymena's first market hall was built in 1684. By 1704, the population of Ballymena had reached 800. In 1707, the first Protestant (Church of Ireland) parish church was built. In 1740, the original Ballymena Castle burned down. The Gracehill Moravian settlement was founded in 1765.

During the United Irish uprising of 1798, Ballymena was occupied on 7 June by rebels who stormed the market hall, killing three of its defenders. By the following day, the insurgent army had grown to more than 10,000, but by evening it had begun to disperse on news of the rebel defeat at Antrim town. The town surrendered to government forces on the morning of the 9th, avoiding the fate of Randalstown, Templepatrick and Ballymoney, which were set ablaze.

Ballymena's first modern Roman Catholic Church was consecrated in 1827. By 1834 the population of Ballymena was about 4,000. In 1848 the Belfast and Ballymena Railway was established. In 1865 Robert Alexander Shafto Adair (later Baron Waveney) started building Ballymena Castle, a magnificent family residence, in the Demesne. It was completed in 1887.

In 1900, Ballymena assumed urban district status. Under the provisions of the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903, the Adairs disposed of most of their Ballymena estate to the occupying tenants in 1904. The old market hall building, which also contained the post office and estate office, burned down in 1919. The new Ballymena Town Hall was officially opened by the Duke of Abercorn on 20 November 1928.

The Urban District Council petitioned for borough status and the Charter was granted in December 1937. The first meeting of councillors as a Borough Council was held on 23 May 1939. The population of Ballymena reached 13,000. Ballymena Castle was demolished in the 1950s. In 1973, the Urban and Rural District Councils were merged to create Ballymena Borough Council. Following local government reorganisation in 2015, the Borough Council was merged with the Boroughs of Carrickfergus Borough Council and Larne Borough Council.

During the Second World War, Ballymena was home to a large number of evacuees from Gibraltar. They were housed with local families.

In the 1950s St Patrick's Barracks in Ballymena was the Regimental Training Depot of the Royal Ulster Rifles (83rd & 86th). Many young men who had been conscripted in England, Scotland and Wales, along with others who had volunteered for service in the British Army, embarked upon their period of basic training in the Regimental Depot, prior to being posted to the regular regimental battalions. Many of these young men were to serve in Korea, Cyprus and with the British Army of the Rhine. In 1968 due to a series of government austerity measures, the remaining three Irish regiments, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (27th) Royal Ulster Rifles (83rd & 86th) and the Royal Irish Fusiliers (89th) merged to become the Royal Irish Rangers. Early in the 1990s the Royal Irish Regiment, whose Regimental Headquarters was at St Patrick's Barracks, was granted the Freedom of the Borough.