Things you didn’t know about Lough Neagh
1. Lough Neagh is situated in the centre of Northern 6. Scientists tell us that the Lough was formed in the
Ireland with five of the Province’s six counties early Tertiary period when a fault line occurred and an
touching its shores. area of land sunk thus allowing it to fill with water
and create Lough Neagh.
2. Lough Neagh is the biggest Lough in the British Isles
and the third biggest lake in Europe measuring over 7. Lough Neagh is home to the largest commercial wild
300 square km’s. It contains over 800 billion gallons eel fishery in Europe, exporting some 650 tonnes of
of water, enough to fill 7 million swimming pools. produce a year to outlets in Billingsgate, Holland and
Germany.
3. Legend has it that Lough Neagh was created by the
Irish Giant Finn McCool who scooped out the Lough 8. The eels in Lough Neagh travel over 4000 miles to
basin to toss it at a Scottish rival that was fleeing breed in the Sargasso Sea and the young fry return
Ulster by way of the Giants Causeway. The piece of by drifting on the Gulf Stream back over the Atlantic
land fell into the Irish Channel and formed the Isle and enter the River Bann as young elvers. The Lough
of Man. also has its own unique species of fish, such as the
Dollaghan which is a huge Trout and Pollan which is a
4. The name means the Lough of the horse-god Eochu. small freshwater type of Herring.
He was the lord of the underworld, who was
supposed to exist beneath its waters. To this day 9. The level of the Lough has been lowered on 4
fishermen can hear booming noises called water guns occasions, the first in 1846 and the last in 1959 and
which are associated with whirlwinds on the surface the water levels are now managed by large flood
of the water but others say it is the horse god gates at Toome.
galloping to the underworld.
10. Six major rivers flow into the Lough and one flows
5. Lough Neagh attracts bird watchers from all over the out (the River Bann) and they collectively drain more
world due to the number and variety of birds which than 1/3 of Northern Ireland’s water. Lough Neagh is
winter and summer in its shores. Over 100,000 an important source of water for Belfast.
wintering wildfowl fly in from places as far away as
Canada, Iceland, Greenland and the Russian Arctic. 11. The Lough has a rich Christian heritage with the
One of the most majestic of these birds is the remnants of three round towers and one of the finest
whooper swan which flies in from Iceland to feed high crosses in the whole of Ireland; Ardboe Cross.
over the winter.
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