The River Roe ( Irish: ''Abhainn na Ró'') is a river located in

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

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 ...

. It flows north from Glenshane in the

Sperrin Mountains The Sperrins or Sperrin Mountains () are a mountain range in Northern Ireland. The range stretches from Strabane and Mullaghcarn in the west, to Slieve Gallion and the Glenshane Pass in the east, in the counties of Tyrone and Londonderry. ...

Lough Foyle Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle ( or "loch of the lip"), is the estuary of the River Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland. It lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Sovereignty over t ...

, via the settlements of

Dungiven Dungiven () is a small town, townland and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is near the main A6 road (Northern Ireland), A6 Belfast to Derry road, which bypasses the town. It lies where the river ...

, Burnfoot,

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 11,279 people at the 2021 Census. In the 40 years between 1 ...

and Myroe. The River Roe's length is .

Origin

The origin of the name ''Roe'' is unclear. Suggestions include a Viking origin in the 8th/9th century, and the Irish ''rua'', meaning "red", i.e. the Red River. This may be a reference to the high amounts of iron found in some places along the river. The Irish government's placenames database, held by Dublin City University, identifies the Irish version of the name as . This roughly translates into English as "the river of rowing", possibly due to common passage by oar-powered boat craft in earlier times.

Geology

The Roe Basin (or Roe Valley) is a wide,

glacial valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

. The river flows most of the way to Limavady through an open, grassy,

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

farmland landscape before narrowing through a

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

gorge within the Roe Valley Country Park. Beyond Limavady the river widens and meanders to an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

feeding into

at Myroe Levels. Due to the wide, open nature of the upper reaches of the Roe, heavy rainfall can result in large surges of water or floods. Many lower lying fields have earth defences to prevent flooding when the river rises above its natural banks. The estuary is a feeding ground of many birds and nesting area for

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (Family (biology), family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, ...

. The main tributaries of the Upper River Roe are the Owenrigh River (which begins in Banagher) and the Owenbeg River (begins near Feeny). They merge outside Dungiven. The main tributary of the Lower River Roe is the Curly River which joins after Limavady.

Angling

The Roe Valley Country Park is a popular area for fishing, with stock of

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 ...

sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are bull trout, sewin (Wales ...

and

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 ...

References

External links

The name of the river RoeSalmon fishing on the River Roe, from Salmon Ireland
{{authority control

Roe Roe, ( ) or hard roe, is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooking, c ...

Origin

Geology

Angling

See also

References

External links