The River Moy () is a river in the west of Ireland.
Name
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 ...
's ''
Geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
'' (2nd century AD) described a river called Λιβνιου (''Libniu'', perhaps from *''lei''- "flow"), which probably referred to the River Moy.
The Moy is first named in
Adomnán
Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (; , ''Adomnanus''; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and Christian saint, saint. He was the author of the ''Life ...
's ''
Life of Columba'' (c. 700) as ''Modam fluvium''. Later spellings include ''Muaide, Muadam, Múed, Múaid''; the name ''An Mhuaidh'' is used in modern Irish. The name is possibly derived from the
Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...
word ''muad'', meaning "noble."
Geography
The Moy rises at the foot of the
Ox Mountains in
County Sligo
County Sligo ( , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region and is part of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in ...
. It flows for . For the greater part of its length, it flows southwestward, entering
County Mayo
County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...
and passing near
Swinford before passing through
Foxford
Foxford () is a town 16 km south of Ballina, County Mayo, Ballina in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It stands on the N26 road, N26 roads in Ireland, national primary route from Swinford to Ballina and has Foxford railway station ...
then turning north near the village of Kilmore and heading for the town of
Ballina, where it enters the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
at
Killala Bay. The Moy Estuary is long beginning at Ballina and running into Killala Bay.
The catchment area of the River Moy is 2,086 km
2.
The long term average flow rate of the River Moy into
Killala Bay is 61.5 cubic metres per second (m
3/s)
The Moy valley, with its ancient
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
es and
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
s, is a prominent
tourist destination.
The entrance to the River Moy from an 1860 chart, showing turbulent water over the bar.
Economics
The
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
was once among the best
salmon
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
fisheries in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
; however, in recent times,
drift net fishing off the coast caused a huge decline in salmon numbers. According to central fisheries board statistics, 101,231 returning salmon were taken by drift nets off the west coast of Ireland in 2005. In the same year, 29% (6,675) of all rod-caught salmon in Ireland were taken in the Ballina district as a result of a
weir
A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...
which keeps salmon trapped in the ridge pool near the mouth of the river during the summer. Drift netting for salmon was banned in November 2006 and the ban came into force on 1 January 2007.
References
https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222354/http://www.serbd.com/MultiDownloads/Creport/Chapters/Physical%20Description%20Ch3.pdf R.O.I. Rivers Table 3.10 P.38
External links
* http://www.themoy.com daily updates on Fishing conditions and Catches
Salmon fishing on the River Moy, from Salmon Ireland()
{{Coord, 54, 11, N, 9, 09, W, display=title, region:IE_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki
Moy
Moy