Qualla: Agivey River

Agivey River: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cdonnelly123, CC BY-SA 4.0. Errigal Bridge is said to be one of the oldest bridges in Ireland. No one quite knows when it was built - the records are silent, the stone is undated, and the lichen on its single arch has been growing for so long that the structure looks less constructed than slowly extruded from the hillside. Below it, the Agivey River drops twenty metres through Errigal Glen, a hidden gorge cut through Sperrin sandstone where the water foams white in winter and slides clear over the dark slabs in summer. Anglers come for the salmon and brown trout. Walkers come for the way the rock walls close in until the sky narrows to a strip of blue. The river that runs under this old, old bridge is one of Northern Ireland's premier game-angling waters - and it has been quietly carrying salmon out to the Bann for as long as the Bann has been carrying water to the sea.

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Image: Cdonnelly123 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Agivey River: The Headwaters

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dean Molyneaux, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Agivey begins where two smaller rivers meet in the foothills of the Sperrin Mountains. The Ashlamaduff and the Formill come down off the slopes above Glenullin, threading through wet upland pasture and sheep-cropped hills, and where they join the Agivey takes its name and its...

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Image: Dean Molyneaux | CC BY-SA 2.0

Agivey River: The Horseshoe Weir

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P.khiao, CC BY-SA 4.0. Garvagh straddles the Agivey at the point where the river leaves the hills and enters the wider valley of the Lower Bann. The town's famous horseshoe weir bows across the river in a graceful curve, holding back enough water to power the old mills that once gave Garvagh its indust...

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Image: P.khiao | CC BY-SA 4.0

Agivey River: Salmon and the John Wilson Episode

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cdonnelly123, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Agivey is one of Northern Ireland's officially designated game-angling rivers. Salmon return from the Atlantic up the Bann and turn into the Agivey to spawn, fighting their way past Glasgort Bridge and the long pools below Bovagh. The Agivey Angling Association manages access...

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Image: Cdonnelly123 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Agivey River: Bridges in Sequence

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cdonnelly123, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Agivey is a river of bridges. From its source down, in approximate order: Lisnascreahog Bridge, Brockagh Bridge, the venerable Errigal Bridge, the Ford Footstick. Then the middle river - Green Bridge, Ballynameen Bridge, Killyvalley Bridge, the disused Railway Bridge of the o...

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Image: Cdonnelly123 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Agivey River: Bovagh and the Estate

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cdonnelly123, CC BY-SA 4.0. Bovagh House sits beside the Agivey downstream of Garvagh. Once a country estate, it now operates as a bed and breakfast - the kind of place where guests fish the river by day and eat dinner overlooking the same water by evening. The river passes through the estate grounds in a w...

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Image: Cdonnelly123 | CC BY-SA 4.0