Qualla: Portaferry https://qualla.com/portaferry en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Portaferry https://qualla.com/portaferry Portaferry: Introduction https://qualla.com/portaferry/ Photo credit Public domain. Two engineers, two centuries apart, looked at the water rushing past Portaferry and saw the same thing - a force begging to be harnessed. The first, Cistercian monks at Nendrum, built a tide mill in the seventh century whose timber pilings still survive in the mud nearby. The second, working in 2008, lowered a 1.2-megawatt twin-rotor turbine called SeaGen into the Narrows just offshore and powered a thousand homes from the same daily flood. Between them lies a small village of around 2,500 people at the tip of the Ards Peninsula, where every thirty minutes a stubby car ferry pushes off across less than a mile of churning water to reach Strangford on the opposite bank.

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/gcsj-portaferry-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Portaferry: A Village at the Narrows https://qualla.com/portaferry/ Photo credit Jordanmcclements, CC BY-SA 3.0. Portaferry sits where the Ards Peninsula curves toward its conclusion and Strangford Lough drains into the Irish Sea. The channel here, the Narrows, is barely 1,500 metres wide but funnels 400 million gallons of seawater in and out twice a day. The village faces this gauntlet hea...

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Image: Jordanmcclements | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/gcsj-portaferry-a-village-at-the-narrows.mp3 0:06 2 full Portaferry: Two Thousand Species https://qualla.com/portaferry/ Photo credit Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0. Strangford Lough is the largest sea inlet in the British Isles, 150 square kilometres of mudflat, island and tidal current. It is also one of the most biologically dense marine sites in the world. More than 2,000 marine species have been recorded here, and the lough holds the mos...

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Image: Ardfern | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/gcsj-portaferry-two-thousand-species.mp3 0:06 3 full Portaferry: Where the Tide Becomes Electricity https://qualla.com/portaferry/ Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. The same currents that make the Narrows treacherous also make them valuable. SeaGen, installed in 2008, was the world's first commercial-scale tidal stream generator, exporting 11.6 gigawatt-hours to the grid before its decommissioning began in 2016. Marine biologists monitored i...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/gcsj-portaferry-where-the-tide-becomes-electricity.mp3 0:06 4 full Portaferry: Saints, Lifeboats and Linen https://qualla.com/portaferry/ Photo credit Dean Molyneaux, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two miles outside the village lies Cooey's Wells, where a church is thought to have stood since around the seventh century and three springs still draw pilgrims seeking healing. In the village proper, the RNLI maintains an Atlantic 85 lifeboat - at speeds up to 34 knots, it is th...

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Image: Dean Molyneaux | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/gcsj-portaferry-saints-lifeboats-and-linen.mp3 0:06 5 full Portaferry: The People Who Left https://qualla.com/portaferry/ Photo credit CC0. For a village of its size, Portaferry has produced a remarkable diaspora. Hugh Glass, born here in 1817, sailed for Australia and became one of the great pastoralists of Victoria. Joseph Tomelty, born in 1911, became one of Ireland's most beloved actors and playwrights. Father Vi...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/portaferry-wp/gcsj-portaferry-the-people-who-left.mp3 0:06 6 full