Editing Comber (section)

== The town ==
Comber grew as a market town with many family-run and independent businesses, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
The town still remains home to a number of independent and artisan stores. The town holds a farmers market on the first Thursday of every month. The market sells fresh, seasonal food and plant products.

After achieving EU Protected Geographical Indication status in 2012, the Comber potato ([[Comber Earlies]]) became a global brand. The potatoes are now celebrated annually at the Comber Earlies Food Festival in June, together with the Comber Earlies Growers.

The town has also benefitted from a £2.4 million public realm scheme. The scheme encompassing High Street, The Square, Bridge Street, Bridge Street Link, Killinchy Street and Castle Street has reinvigorated Comber, creating a unique and uniform identity for the town centre. The design concepts were developed in partnership with Ards Borough Council, and, community and business representatives. Making the announcement, Minister McCausland said: "This represents a significant investment by the Northern Ireland Executive and Ards Borough Council. The scheme has been designed to bring the maximum benefit to all of Comber's residents and to make the town centre much more attractive to visitors. This scheme is a fundamental part of the strategy 'Envisaging the future of Comber'.
"I know from the success of public realm schemes in other towns, that this investment will make a significant contribution to improving the fortunes of the town centre. This funding demonstrates my ongoing commitment to the regeneration of Comber."
Mayor of Ards, Councillor Stephen McIlveen, welcomed the confirmation of funding. He said: "This investment by DSD and the Council will transform the visual appearance of the town centres, enhancing their appeal as places to visit and shop, with the associated positive economic impact. I look forward now to seeing the designs developed and finalised and to work beginning."

Like the rest of Ireland, the Comber area has long been divided into [[townland]]s, whose names mostly come from the [[Irish language]]. Over time, more rural townlands have been built upon and they have given their names to many roads and housing estates. The following is a list of townlands within Comber's urban area, alongside their likely [[etymology|etymologies]]:<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.placenamesni.org/Index.html
 |title=Northern Ireland Placenames Project
 |access-date=2010-05-30
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001193620/http://www.placenamesni.org/Index.html
 |archive-date=1 October 2010
 |df=dmy
}}</ref>

*Ballyaltikilligan (from ''Baile Ailt Uí Ghiollagáin'' meaning "townland of O'Gilligan's glen" or ''Baile Ailt Cille Aodháin'' meaning "townland of the glen of Aodan's church")
*Ballyhenry Minor (from ''Baile Héinrí'' or ''Baile Éinrí'' meaning "Henry's townland")
*Ballymagaughey (from ''Baile Mhig Eacháin'' meaning "MacGaughey's townland")
*Carnasure or Carnesure (from ''Ceathrú na Siúr'' meaning "quarterland of the sisters")
*Glass Moss formerly Ballynaganemye (from ''Baile na Gainimhe'' meaning "townland of the sand")

[[The Comber Greenway]] is a {{Convert | 7 | mi | adj = on}} traffic-free section of the National Cycle Network, along the old Belfast-Comber railway line. The cycle path starts on Dee Street in Belfast and finishes at Comber. Now completed the Greenway provides an eco-friendly cycle path with views of Stormont and Scrabo Tower. This attracts many cyclists into the town boosting the local economy.
The current route of the Greenway was originally used as the route for the Belfast and County Down Railway. The railway was in use from the 1850s to 1950 when it was permanently retired. Throughout the 1950s the track was lifted in stages and infrastructure, including bridges, removed. Local activists and politicians have proposed plans to extend the Greenway into the town centre directly which they say would benefit the local businesses even more.

[[Castle Espie]] is a wetland reserve managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) on the banks of Strangford Lough, {{Convert | 3 | mi | 0 | spell = in}} south of Comber, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Strangford Lough Ramsar Site. It provides an early wintering site for almost the entire Nearctic population of Pale-bellied Brent Geese. The Castle which gave the reserve its name no longer exists. Castle Espie was officially opened as a Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre by Lady Scott on 4 May 1990. The site had previously been a limestone quarry, and also had a brickworks, pottery and lime kilns for producing lime from limestone, as well as part of a farm.

In September 2007, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £2.96 million towards a major wetland restoration project at Castle Espie, the largest investment in biodiversity in Northern Ireland. At the heart of the project, costing £4m in all, will be the restoration and improvement of intertidal and freshwater habitats along the shores of Strangford Lough to encourage more species and greater numbers of waterbirds to feed, roost or breed at Castle Espie, as well as restoring important habitats. A new ecologically sustainable visitor centre would also be constructed, and other improvements would be carried out to hides and observatories.