Lough Foyle

Address: RSPB NI Headquarters, Belvoir Park Forest, Belfast BT8 7QT

Grid ref: NV714858

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Intertidal mudflats form part of the Lough Foyle SPA and Ramsar site, holding internationally and nationally important numbers of wintering and passage wildfowl and waders. The vast, open estuarine vistas create a spectacular landscape, with the mudflats and agricultural hinterland providing a superb birding experience.

Plan your visit

Open at all times.

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: Free, but donations are welcome

Children: Free, but donations are welcome

Facilities

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

Closest station is Derry/Londonderry (8 miles/12.8 km away).

By bus

Nearest bus stop, Ballykelly, 1 mile (2 km) away.

By bike

The reserve is four miles from Route 93 of the National Cycle Network.

By road

Access via a number of minor roads off the A2 between Limavady and Derry/Londonderry.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps

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Contact Lough Foyle

RSPB NI Headquarters, Belvoir Park Forest, Belfast BT8 7QT
Gareth.Bareham@rspb.org.uk
028 9049 1547

What will you see?

Our star species

Brent goose

Large flocks of this internationally important population can be seen on the mudflats and in the adjacent fields.

Whooper swan

Whooper swans overwintering from Iceland regularly use the fields behind the sea wall and can easily be admired from the road or track along the wall.

Bar-tailed godwit

Internationally significant flocks, often with other waders, provide a stunning spectacle in the air and a great challenge to count when huddled together along the shoreline.

Great northern diver

Can be seen as well as Slavonian grebes, picking them out with a telescope on the open water from the red-throated divers and great crested grebes is one of the fun birding challenges on the vast open 'waterscape'.

Pintail

Finding rafts of these lovely elegant ducks amongst the wigeon, teal, mallard etc on the water along the shoreline is a highlight of the day.

Nature spectacles

The marvellous acrobatics of displaying lapwings over the fields in spring, otters fishing in the larger drains, whooper swans calling to each other as they fly in to roost, huge, wheeling flocks of waders as peregrines harry them.

Look out for the wonderful swooping aerial acrobatics of displaying lapwing over the spring-sown crops or less improved grassland. Highlights include large flocks of passage waders such as ringed plover and dunlin, with white wagtails and wheatears frequent visitors.

Look out as lapwings rise to see off crows or buzzards from the fields where their chicks may be seen. The reeds along the drains are home to singing sedge warblers and reed buntings and if you are lucky you may see otters fishing in the larger drains.

You can see flocks of the internationally important populations of the pale-bellied Brent geese, bar-tailed godwits and whooper swans as they return from their breeding grounds. Highlights include hundreds of whoopers, sometimes with Greenland white-fronted geese to be seen in the same fields. Flocks of more than 1000 pale-bellied Brent geese or 3000 golden plovers make for astounding sights and sounds over the fields, while large flocks of bar-tailed godwits and other waders such as dunlin, knot or oystercatcher make for a great sight along the shoreline.

On wild winter days wintering geese, swans and waders may be hunkered down on the open stubble fields or pastures. On those lovely crisp, clear days when the lough is mirror-like in its stillness, species such as common scoters or horned grebes may be seen well out on the water with a good scope.

About Lough Foyle

Habitat

The SPA hosts the second largest area of intertidal habitat in Northern Ireland, with extensive mud and sandflats exposed at low tide. Important features include extensive shell and gravel ridges and important eelgrass beds. The agricultural habitats behind the sea wall which bounds the Foyle estuary form an important part of the landscape used by birds associated with the Foyle SPA.

Conservation

RSPB work to safeguard the internationally significant concentrations of wintering and passage wildfowl and waders that rely on the intertidal mudflats and adjacent farmland. A crucial part of this conservation work is to work in partnership with others and provide advice and support to achieve sustainable management of this very important landscape.

Site information

The open water hosts a great array of ducks including good numbers of pintails, wigeons and teals. More unusual species such as common scoters or long-tailed ducks may also be seen. The large, open fields behind the sea wall bounding the SPA support feeding or roosting flocks of more than 500 whooper swans, along with huge flocks of golden plovers, lapwings and a mix of other waders through the autumn into the spring, while over spring and summer breeding lapwings as well as Irish hares and otters provide notable spectacles.

Activities and events

Leisure activities

The reserve area provides for birdwatching par excellence. Good viewing locations at Longfield and Ballykelly Banks and Myroe levels are accessible on foot/bicycle and give some of the best views over the mudflats and fields behind the sea wall. The track along the sea wall also provides a good route for walking and cycling, with a new footbridge now providing a continuous stretch of over three miles between Ballykelly and Myroe Banks.

Lough Foyle