Hannahstown Hill is a road in west Belfast running uphill from the Glen Road towards Hannahstown. On modern maps the name Hannahstown Hill is applied to this rising stretch of road. Earlier Ordnance Survey mapping shows the same route labelled as Hannahstown Road, indicating a later change in name rather than any alteration in alignment.
The name derives from the ancient townland of Hannahstown, situated on the western fringe of Belfast. For much of its history the area remained rural in character, with farmland, scattered dwellings, and quarrying forming the dominant features of the landscape. This rural context persisted well into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, prior to the westward expansion of the city.
Ordnance Survey maps from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries show the road climbing westwards from the Glen Road labelled as Hannahstown Road. The surrounding higher ground is clearly defined by contour lines and bench marks, and mapping also records quarrying activity nearby, emphasising the practical use of the elevated terrain. In later twentieth-century and modern mapping, the name Hannahstown Hill is applied to this uphill section, reflecting the physical character of the route rather than any structural change.
The retention of the townland name within the street name reflects the strong survival of older landscape identities in west Belfast, where traditional place-names often continued in use even as the area became increasingly urbanised.
Hannahstown Hill is a descriptive name. The first element preserves the historic townland name, while the second highlights the rising ground and steep ascent of the road as it climbs from the Glen Road towards Hannahstown. The change from Hannahstown Road to Hannahstown Hill on modern maps reflects an increased emphasis on topography in local naming practice.
Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, historical six-inch and 1:10,000 maps
OSNI modern digital mapping
PRONI, townland and valuation records
Local cartographic and topographical evidence