Irbe (also Dižirbe, Dižirve, Irbes upe, Irve, Livonian: Īra) is a coastal river on the northern

Courland Peninsula The Courland Peninsula (, German: ''Kurland''), also sometimes known as the Couronian Peninsula, is a distinct geographical, historical and cultural region in western Latvia. It represents the north-westernmost part of the broader region of Co ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

.Irbe at the Latvian placename database
/ref> Of length 32 km, it starts as the confluence of

Stende Stende (; ) is a town in Talsi Municipality, in the Courland region of Latvia. History The settlement was on the land of the manor Stende since the 14th century. The whole of it was owned originally by the lord of the manor Philipp von der B ...

and rivers and it follows the coastline of the

Irbe Strait Irbe Strait, also known as Irben Strait (, , ), forms the main exit out of the Gulf of Riga to the Baltic Sea, between the Sõrve Peninsula forming the southern end of the island Saaremaa in Estonia and Courland Peninsula in Latvia. It is wide ...

, reaching the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

in the Irbe Strait about halfway between the promontories of the

Oviši Lighthouse Oviši Lighthouse () is a lighthouse located in , Latvia near Tārgale on the Courland Peninsula coast of the Baltic Sea. History The lighthouse is the oldest functioning lighthouse in Latvia; the village was once a settlement of plunderers ...

and

cape Kolka Cape Kolka (, ) is a cape on the Baltic Sea, near the entry to Gulf of Riga, on the Livonian coast, in the Courland Peninsula of Latvia. The cape is surrounded by the Irbe Strait (Irbes šaurums) which serves as the natural border with Estonia ...

.Irbe river, location map
on ''google.com/maps''. It runs within the

Tārgale parish Tārgale Parish () is an administrative unit of the Ventspils Municipality in the Courland region of Latvia.The parish has a population of 1956 (as of 1/07/2010) and covers an area of 364.19 km2. Villages of Tārgale Parish Notable nat ...

Ventspils district The Ventspils district (), was an administrative division of Latvia, located in the Courland region, in the country's west. The district consisted of eleven parishes and one rural territory. The city of Ventspils was district-free, and not part o ...

. Its only significant tributary (left) is . The brown moor water of the river constantly moves large sandbanks in its estuary. The river is used as spawning ground by

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

.The Baltic coast
video by ''Free High-Quality Documentaries'' on ''youtube.com''. For

, see 38'16 - 38'30. For

Slītere national park Slītere National Park () is a national park in Talsi Municipality, Courland, on the west coast of Latvia. Although formally established in 2000, it is based on the former Slītere Nature Reserve, one of the oldest nature reserves in Baltic State ...

, see 38'31 - 38'42. For the Ilbe river brown moor waters reaching the sea, see 38'43 - 38'48. For the sandbanks, see 38'48 - 39'06. For brown trouts reproducing up river, see 39'06 - 39'33.

References

Further reading