HISTORIC SETTLEMENT: COMBER in Comber; Mount Alexander

Comber occupies the north-west corner of Strangford Lough, a place where the Celts saw a lake of harbours and the Vikings later called it a strange fjord. Eight thousand years ago, nomadic hunters crossed from Scotland or the Isle of Man to join the abundant shellfish and small animals along this water. They chipped flint tools, ate what the lough gave them, and left a high midden of refuse at Island Hill. Farming people came later, cleared the forests, and buried their dead with food for a imagined journey beyond life. The confluence of rivers, the rounded hills, and the old stone tombs still mark that long human presence.