Lough Foyle
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Lough Foyle (Loch Feabhail in Irish) is the name given to the estuary of the River Foyle. It starts where the Foyle leaves Derry. It separates the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal from County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.
There is a saying, that when one is on a boat on Lough Foyle, one is at the only place in the world where north is south, and south is north. (The Republic of Ireland, even Donegal, is referred to as "The South" in Northern Ireland, while "The North" is a common term for Northern Ireland).
The main character of Alfred Bester's famous science-fiction novel, The Stars My Destination, is named Gulliver Foyle. Bester took the names of his characters from various locations in Ireland and Great Britain.
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[edit] Transport
- In the summer time, a ferry service operates between County Donegal and County Londonderry over Lough Foyle.
- The Broharris Canal was constructed in the 1820s when a cut, some two miles long on the south shore of Lough Foyle near Ballykelly was made in the direction of Limavady. It served both as a drainage channel and a navigation with goods being brought from the port of Derry, and shellfish and kelp from the sand banks along the shore.
- In 1792 the four mile Strabane Canal was constructed from the tidal waters of Lough Foyle at Leck, to Strabane. The canal fell into disuse in 1962. In June 2006 the Strabane Lifford Development Commission awarded a £1.3m cross-border waterways restoration contract. The project involves the restoration of one and a half miles of canal and two locks to working order. Work is due to start on the Lough Foyle side of the canal in the summer of 2006.
[edit] Flora and fauna
[edit] Flora
A survey of Lough Foyle was made between March 1937 and June 1939 by H. Blackler. [1] In this a map shows the distribution of certain species of algae in the lough and a full annotated list of the algae recorded along with photographs of the different sites. The list included: Cyanophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae, lichens and two species of Zostera. The marine algae of Lough Foyle are also included in Morton (2003).[2]
[edit] Fauna
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has a reserve at the lough.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Blackler, H. 1951. An algal survey of Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland. Proc. R. Ir. Acad. 54B(6):97 - 139
- ^ Morton, O. 2003. The marine macroalgae of County Donegal, Ireland.. Bull. Ir. biogeog. Soc.27: 3 - 164
- ^ Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
[edit] General references
- Belfast Telegraph, 26 June 2006
