The great sea inlet of Strangford Lough is one of Northern Ireland's greatest attractions, and one of Europe’s most important wildlife sites.

Strangford Lough teems with life above and below the water surface. It is the UK's largest sea inlet, a myriad little inlets and bays with over 120 islands dotted across its surface, rich in wildfowl and marine life.

The Lough is most famous as one of the best bird watching locations in the country. It is recognised globally as a Ramsar site: a designation given to wetlands of international importance for large numbers of breeding or over-wintering birds.

Up to 75 per cent of the world population of light-bellied brent geese over-winter at the Lough. One-third of all Ireland's terns nest in dense colonies on its islands during late spring and early summer.

A haven for marine life, butterflies and wild flowers

As well as providing one of the best bird watching sites in Northern Ireland, Strangford Lough is rich in marine life (the number of species it supports below water totals more than 2,000), wild flowers and butterflies.

Its sheltered tidal waters are also host to Northern Ireland's most important common seal population, which you can see almost all year round.

In order to protect this habitat and the birds and animals it supports, we operate a Wildlife Scheme at Strangford Lough. Through the Scheme, we actively survey, monitor and protect wildlife sites and manage the habitats of the Lough.

© NTPL / Joe Cornish

Where to look for wildlife at Strangford Lough

The northern tip of Strangford Lough is just 6 miles from Belfast. The Strangford Lough Wildlife Centre (tel: 028 4488 1411) is located in the grounds of the Castle Ward Estate at the southern end of the Lough. It provides exhibitions, leaflets and other information. There are wildlife hides and viewing points around the Lough. Daily ferries (except Christmas Day) cross back and forth from Strangford to Portaferry.

Mud flats and sand flats

Soft muds and muddy sands form vast areas at particularly the northern end of the Lough. Around 70,000 birds come here each winter. Wildlife is best spotted here during low tide.

Look out for:

• pale-bellied brent geese feeding on eel-grass (Zostera marina) during the autumn
• large flocks of knots, dunlins, curlews, redshanks and oystercatchers over winter
• plovers, godwits and knots performing spectacular aerobatics in winter
• shelduck feeding on the marine snails that live here in vast numbers
• wigeons and teals in winter
• whooper swans in winter
• waders such as dunlins, turnstones, black and bar-tailed godwits arriving from the Arctic in winter

Islands

According to legend there are 365 islands in Strangford Lough, one for every day of the year. The assortment of flat and rounded islands in the Lough are also called drumlins.

Look out for:

• large flocks of knots, dunlins, curlews, redshanks and oystercatchers roosting over winter
• Sandwich, Arctic and common terns breeding from May to July
• black-headed gulls, which nest on the islands in their thousands, and alert the colonies to predators such as peregrine falcons
• eiders and mergansers
• oystercatchers and ringed plovers
• cormorants, a population of around 200 pairs breed
• common and grey seals hauled out of the water resting, or nursing during the summer

© National Trust

In and around the water

Look out for:

• common and grey seals swimming
• otters swimming; their spraint is found on stones or banks as a mark of their territory
• porpoises, which are regularly seen in the Lough

Shoreline

Among the boulders of the foreshore, look out for:

• knotted wrack seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum)
• molluscs such as winkles and chitons (wearing 'armour plating') hiding under stones
• common seals hauled out on rocks close to the shore

Where the sea meets land, look out for:

• sandhoppers, a little shrimp-like crustacean
• seaweed flies, insects which are food for turnstones, starlings and badgers
• sea aster (Aster tripolium) flowering from July to October
• scurvy grass
• thrift (Armeria maritima) flowering from June to August
• sea lavender (Limonium spp) flowering from July to December

© National Trust

Higher up the shoreline, look out for:

• wild thyme (Thymus drucei)
• stonecrops and squills flowering in the summer
• bell heather (Erica cinerea) flowering from June to September
• bee orchids (Ophrys apifera) flowering from April to May
• pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) flowering from June to August
• twayblade orchids (Listera ovata) flowering from May to July

© NTPL / Stephen Robson

salt-marsh

salt-marsh is a rare habitat in Northern Ireland. It is scattered around the Lough.

Look out for:

• large flocks of knots, dunlins, curlews, redshanks and oystercatchers roosting over winter
• thrift (Armeria maritima) flowering from June to August
• sea lavender (Limonium spp) flowering from July to December
• sea milkwort (Glaux maritima)