| Lough Foyle | |
|---|---|
| Loch Feabhail (Irish) | |
 From south shore | |
 | |
| Location | Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom border |
| Coordinates | 55°07′N7°06′W / 55.12°N 7.10°W /55.12; -7.10 |
| River sources | River Foyle,River Roe,River Faughan |
| Ocean/sea sources | Atlantic Ocean,Irish Sea |
| Basin countries | Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland |
| Settlements | Ballykelly,Derry,Greencastle,Shrove,Magilligan,Moville,Muff |
| Designated | 2 February 1999 |
| Reference no. | 974[1] |
Lough Foyle, sometimesLoch Foyle[2][full citation needed] (Irish:Loch Feabhail, meaning 'Feabhal's loch'[3] or "loch of the lip"[4]), is theestuary of theRiver Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland. It lies betweenCounty Londonderry inNorthern Ireland andCounty Donegal in theRepublic of Ireland. Sovereignty over the waters has been in dispute since thePartition of Ireland.
A survey of Lough Foyle was made between March 1937 and June 1939 byHelen Blackler.[5] In this, a map shows the distribution of certain species ofalgae 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 ofZostera. The marine algae of Lough Foyle are also included in Morton (2003).[6]
TheRoyal Society for the Protection of Birds has areserve at the lough.[7]
In 1792 the four-mileStrabane Canal was constructed from the tidal waters of Lough Foyle atLeck, toStrabane. The canal fell into disuse in 1962. In June 2006 theStrabane 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 began on the Lough Foyle side of the canal in the summer of 2006, but by 2010 the partial restoration was deemed unsatisfactory and the local council refused to continue to maintain the canal. TheBroharris Canal was constructed in the 1820s when a cut – some two miles long on the south shore of Lough Foyle nearBallykelly – was made in the direction ofLimavady. It served both as a drainage channel and anavigation, with goods being brought from theLondonderry Port, and shellfish andkelp from the sandbanks along the shore.
In the summertime, a ferry service operates betweenGreencastle andMagilligan across Lough Foyle.
NI Railways runs fromDerry~Londonderry railway station along the scenic shore of Lough Foyle – with views ofInishowen inCounty Donegal as well as the Atlantic Ocean – viaColeraine toBelfast Lanyon Place andBelfast Grand Central. The strategically importantBelfast–Derry railway line is to be upgraded to facilitate more frequent trains and improvements to the permanent way, such as track and signalling to enable faster services.
From Londonderry railway station the next stop isBellarena followed byCastlerock thenColeraine en route toBelfast. Walkers alighting from trains arriving at Castlerock can walk toMussenden Temple owned by theNational Trust and can see the mouth of Lough Foyle andGreencastle some distance away inCounty Donegal.
The main character ofAlfred 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.[citation needed]
TheUnited States Navy established theNaval Air Station Lough Foyle on theInishowen side of the lough on 1 July 1918 to operateseaplanes during theFirst World War. The base closed shortly after theFirst Armistice at Compiègne.[8]
At the end of theSecond World War, after theAllied victory, the remainder of theGerman Atlantic fleet ofU-boats used to attack supply lines fromNorth America to Britain during theBattle of the Atlantic were assembled in Lough Foyle andscuttled – as part ofOperation Deadlight.
Lough Foyle is a disputed territory between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom; after thePartition of Ireland in the early 1920s, each side claimed that it was in their own territory. Although this dispute is still ongoing, there are currently no negotiations as to its ownership.
The UK'sForeign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) underlined its view on 2 June 2009 that all of Lough Foyle is in the United Kingdom, a spokesperson stating:'The UK position is that the whole of Lough Foyle is within the UK. We recognise that the Irish Government does not accept this position...There are no negotiations currently in progress on this issue. The regulation of activities in the Lough is now the responsibility of the Loughs Agency, a cross-border body established under theGood Friday Agreement.'[9]
In November 2016,James Brokenshire,MP, the UK'sSecretary of State for Northern Ireland, reiterated the UK's view that all of Lough Foyle is in the UK,[10] whilstCharles Flanagan,TD, the Republic of Ireland'sMinister for Foreign Affairs, stated that the Republic of Ireland did not recognise Britain's claim to the entirety of Lough Foyle.[11]
Media related toLough Foyle at Wikimedia Commons