Belfast Lough () is a large sea inlet on the east coast of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. At its head is the city and

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, which sits at the mouth of the

River Lagan The River Lagan (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ''Lagan Wattèr'') is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The ...

. The lough opens into the North Channel and connects Belfast to the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

. Belfast Lough is a long, wide and deep expanse of water, virtually free of strong tides. The inner part of the lough comprises a series of mudflats and lagoons. The outer lough is restricted to mainly rocky shores with some small sandy bays. The outer boundary of the lough is a line joining Orlock Point and Blackhead. The main coastal towns are Bangor on the southern shore (

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

) and

Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 28,141 at the 2021 census. It is County Antrim's oldest t ...

on the northern shore (

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

). Other coastal settlements include Holywood,

Helen's Bay Helen's Bay is a village on the northern coast of County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Ballygrot (), between Holywood, County Down, Holywood, Crawfordsburn and Bangor, County Down, Bangor. It is served by a Helen's Bay rai ...

, Greenisland and Whitehead.

Name

Belfast Lough is known in Irish as ''Loch Lao'', which was Anglicised as 'Lough Lee'. Earlier spellings include ''Loch Laoigh'' and ''Loch Laigh''. This name means "sea inlet of the calf". The River Lagan, which flows into it, was also historically known as the ''Lao''. It is believed that the lough and river were named after a "bovine goddess". In the 2nd century, the Greek geographer

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

referred to it as the ''Logia''. Before Belfast grew into a city, the lough was known in English as 'Carrickfergus Bay'. In Ulster-Scots it is called ''Bilfawst Loch'' or ''Craigfergus Loch''.

History

In 1689 during the War of the Two Kings the Williamite expeditionary force under Marshal Schomberg landed at Bangor, after the lough had been cleared of French shipping by

George Rooke Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke (1650 – 24 January 1709) was an Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and again at the Battle of Schooneveld duri ...

. Schomberg occupied the towns of Bangor and Belfast, before successfully laying siege to Carrickfergus. The following year William III also used the lough as a safe anchorage when he arrived in Ireland with reinforcements for Schomberg in the run-up to the victory over the Jacobite army at the Battle of the Boyne.

Wildlife

Nature reserve

The "inner lough" was made an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in 1987. Recorded wildlife includes ''Crepidula fornicata'' Lamarck (Slipper Limpet).

Ramsar site

The Belfast Lough Ramsar site (wetlands of international importance designated under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

), is 432.14 hectares in area, at latitude 54 38 00 N and longitude 05 54 00 W. It was designated a Ramsar site on 5 August 1998. In the outer lough, the Ramsar boundary entirely coincides with that of Outer Belfast Lough Area of Special Scientific Interest but within the immediate harbour area the boundary has been redrawn to take into account permitted port related development and landfill which has taken place since the Inner Belfast Lough Area of Special Scientific Interest was declared in 1987. Marine areas below mean low water are not included. The Ramsar boundary entirely coincides with that of the Belfast Lough

Special Protection Area A special protection area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and cer ...

. The site qualifies under Criterion 3c of the Ramsar Convention by regularly supporting internationally important numbers of

common redshank The common redshank or simply redshank (''Tringa totanus'') is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae. Taxonomy The common redshank was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of hi ...

in winter. The site also regularly supports nationally important numbers of common shelduck, Eurasian oystercatcher, purple sandpiper, dunlin, black-tailed godwit, bar-tailed godwit, Eurasian curlew and ruddy turnstone. In recent years, Otters have been seen more regularly on the lough shores.

Sailing

Popular for sailing, the lough has three marinas: one at Bangor, one at

and a third located at Titanic Quarter. Belfast docks at the head of a lough contain the famous shipbuilder of the RMS ''Titanic'' fame, Harland & Wolff, who are no longer building ships for the foreseeable future and has shed most of its workforce and diversified into repairing and refitting large tankers and oilrigs. Coastguard offices for the lough, although referred to as ''Belfast Coastguard'', are in the town of Bangor by the marina. In 1912, the RMS Titanic sailed down the lough from Belfast to the Irish Sea for its sea trials. The lough hosts two Royal Yacht Clubs. These include the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club, at Cultra just outside Holywood, and the Royal Ulster, which is based from Bangor. There are also several other sailing clubs around the lough, many of which are members of the Belfast Lough Yachting Conference. The lough has of open water and enough coastline to make short inshore races day-long affairs. Three main arteries serve the lough close to Belfast: the Herdman Channel on the

coast side; the Victoria Channel, the central and longest route; and the Musgrave Channel on the

side.

Railway

The Belfast-Larne railway line skirts the north shore particularly from

and then Downshire to Whitehead and northwards then alongside Larne Lough to Larne Harbour. Trains connect Belfast Grand Central and Belfast Lanyon Place to Larne Harbour. The Belfast-Bangor railway line skirts the south shore at Holywood railway station to Marino railway station and Cultra railway station. Trains connect Belfast Grand Central; and Belfast Lanyon Place to Bangor. Cultra railway station is the home of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

References

External links

*RSP
Belfast Lough Nature Reserve
{{Authority control Carrickfergus Geography of Belfast Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves in Northern Ireland Sea loughs of Northern Ireland Special Protection Areas in Northern Ireland Ramsar sites in Northern Ireland Protected areas of County Antrim Protected areas of County Down