Wood Island

Wood Island is a small island in Strangford Lough, County Down, about 1.5 kilometres from Killinchy, in the western part of the lough. It covers about 24 acres, making it one of the larger islands in the lough.

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 western shore of the lough is the most island-studded, a maze of drumlins, pladdies and sheltered channels between Whiterock, Ringhaddy and Killinchy, close to Nendrum Monastery on Mahee Island and the tower house on Sketrick Island. Its nearest neighbours include Watson’s Island, Long Island, Killinchy and Rolly Island.

More about Wood Island

Its name suggests it was once wooded, as some of the lough’s islands still are. 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

There is no public access to Wood 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 Wood 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, Common Tern, Oystercatcher, Grey Heron and Eurasian Otter. In winter around three quarters of the world’s pale-bellied brent geese feed on the lough’s mudflats.