At Greyabbey, on the Ards peninsula, an old tale is linked to the stump of a windmill. It says an 18th-century pirate chief known as Commodore Bob was hanged by a lynch mob, who then dumped his body at the mill for the rats. The rats merely chewed through the ropes, and the pirate, not quite dead, got away.
The mob that tried to hang him is named in the story as the Merry Hearts of Down, a ruthless band of pirates who worked in and around Kircubbin on Strangford Lough. The story is told without sources and sounds like a local tall tale.
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