Strangford Lough

Strangford Lough, on the east coast of County Down in Northern Ireland, is the largest sea inlet in the British Isles, covering about 150 square kilometres. It is almost cut off from the Irish Sea by the Ards Peninsula, joined to the open sea only by the Narrows, a channel about eight kilometres long between Strangford and Portaferry, through which the whole tide of the lough pours in and out twice a day. The name comes from the Old Norse Strangfjörthr, “the fjord of the strong current”.

Landscape

The lough is famous for its islands. Its main body holds at least seventy islands and many smaller islets, known locally as pladdies, most of them drumlins: smooth, whale-backed hills of glacial clay left by the ice sheets and later drowned by the rising sea. The islands are thickest along the western shore, between Comber and Killyleagh, where Mahee Island, Sketrick Island, Islandmore and Island Taggart lie among a maze of smaller islets, channels and sheltered anchorages. At low tide great sweeps of mudflat appear at the northern end of the lough, near Newtownards, and around the islands of the inner shore.

The islands

Each island has its own character. Mahee Island holds Nendrum Monastery, one of the most important early Christian sites in Ireland, with its round tower, three rings of stone walls and one of the oldest excavated tide mills in the world. Sketrick Island has the ruins of a tower house that once guarded the causeway to the mainland. Gores Island, near the mouth of the Quoile, was farmed until its last resident, Jane Spratt, died there in 1910 at the age of 98. Smaller islands such as Reagh, Rainey, Trasnagh, Dunsy, Pawle and Simmy are quiet drumlins of grass and scrub, while Angus Rock, at the mouth of the Narrows, waited more than 260 years for its lighthouse to be lit.

History

People have lived around the lough for thousands of years. Early Christian monks founded Nendrum on Mahee Island, traditionally in the 5th century, and the Vikings, whose ships used the lough, gave it its name. After the Anglo-Norman invasion John de Courcy and his followers built castles and abbeys along its shores: Grey Abbey, a Cistercian house founded in 1193 by de Courcy’s wife Affreca, still stands on the eastern shore, and tower houses such as Sketrick, Kilclief and Strangford Castle guarded the lough and the Narrows. Killyleagh Castle, on the western shore, is often said to be one of the oldest inhabited castles in Ireland.

Wildlife

Strangford Lough was designated as Northern Ireland’s first Marine Nature Reserve in 1995, and it is one of the richest wildlife sites in Ireland. Each winter around three quarters of the world’s pale-bellied brent geese arrive from Arctic Canada to feed on the eelgrass of its mudflats, along with huge flocks of knot, golden plover, redshank and other waders and wildfowl. Common seals breed on the quiet shores of the islands, grey seals haul out near the Narrows, and basking sharks are sometimes seen in summer. The powerful currents of the Narrows support a remarkable variety of sea life, from sponges and anemones to soft corals.

More about Strangford Lough

The same currents that make the Narrows so rich made the lough a pioneer of marine energy: in 2008 SeaGen, the world’s first commercial tidal stream turbine, was installed in the channel near Portaferry. The National Trust looks after much of the lough’s shore and many of its islands, and its great houses, Mount Stewart on the eastern shore and Castle Ward near Strangford, have gardens and walks running down to the water. Scrabo Tower, on its hill above Newtownards, gives a famous view over the whole lough and its islands.

Visiting

The Strangford to Portaferry ferry has crossed the Narrows for almost four centuries, running every half hour or so and taking about ten minutes. Mahee Island and Sketrick Island can be reached by road from Comber and Killinchy, and Nendrum Monastery is free to visit. Most of the other islands are private or uninhabited, but they can be explored by kayak, sailing boat or on organised boat trips, and the Strangford Lough Canoe Trail links campsites around the shore. The tides run very fast in the Narrows and the mudflats can be soft, so take local advice before heading out. Every island here can be collected in your Island Passport.