Rough Island, Strangford Lough

Rough Island, Strangford Lough is a small island in Strangford Lough, County Down, about 1.9 kilometres from Castle Espie, in the northern part of the lough. It covers about 6 acres.

Rough Island lies at the northern end of the lough near Newtownards, joined to the shore by a tidal causeway. Its stony beaches look out over the great mudflats of the northern lough, and it is a popular walk at low tide.

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 northern end of Strangford Lough is shallow, and at low tide vast mudflats stretch towards Newtownards. These mudflats are among the most important feeding grounds for wintering birds in Ireland, and the National Trust’s Mount Stewart and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Castle Espie both look out over this part of the lough. Its nearest neighbours include McCaigs Rocks, Rabbs Rig and Ogilby Island.

More about Rough Island, Strangford Lough

Its name describes its rough, stony shore. 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.

Visiting

Rough Island, Strangford Lough can be reached on foot from the shore at low tide; check the tide times before you cross, and return in good time. You can collect Rough Island, Strangford Lough as a landing or 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 Brent Goose, Knot, Golden Plover, Redshank and Shelduck. In winter around three quarters of the world’s pale-bellied brent geese feed on the lough’s mudflats.