Pherson’s Island

Pherson’s Island is a small island in Strangford Lough, County Down, about 5.7 kilometres from Kircubbin, in the eastern part of the lough. It covers about 16 acres.

Landscape

Like most of the lough’s larger islands, it is a drumlin, a smooth, rounded hill of clay left by the ice sheets of the last Ice Age and later surrounded by the rising sea. The eastern shore of the lough runs along the Ards Peninsula, past the villages of Greyabbey and Kircubbin, with low farmland coming down to a coast of small bays, points and islands. Grey Abbey, founded in 1193, stands just inland near Greyabbey. Its nearest neighbours include Long Island, Ringhaddy, Round Island, Strangford Lough and Mid Island, Kircubbin.

More about Pherson’s Island

Like many of the lough’s islands, it is probably named after a person or family, perhaps a former owner or tenant. Strangford Lough holds at least seventy islands and many more islets, and their names, a mix of Irish, Norse, Scots and English, record centuries of farming, fishing and seafaring around its shores.

Like many of the lough’s islands, it is probably named after a person or family, perhaps a former owner or tenant.

Visiting

There is no public access to Pherson’s Island, but it can be seen from the shore and from boats and kayaks on the lough. The tides run fast and the mud can be soft, so take local advice before heading out on the water, and keep clear of seals and nesting birds. You can collect Pherson’s Island as a sighting in your Island Passport.

Wildlife and area

Strangford Lough is a Marine Nature Reserve and one of the richest wildlife sites in Ireland. Around this part of the lough look out for Harbour Seal, Oystercatcher, Common Eider, Brent Goose and Cormorant. In winter around three quarters of the world’s pale-bellied brent geese feed on the lough’s mudflats.