Qualla: Strangford Lough https://qualla.com/strangford-lough 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/strangford-lough-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Strangford Lough https://qualla.com/strangford-lough Strangford Lough: Introduction https://qualla.com/strangford-lough/ Photo credit Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0. Four hundred million gallons of seawater move through one narrow channel here, twice every day. The Vikings, who knew currents the way modern pilots know weather, named this place Strangfjorthr - the strong fjord, the fjord of the strong current. The water they were measuring is still doing what it did then: forcing itself through a kilometre-wide gap between Strangford and Portaferry, then spreading across 150 square kilometres of sheltered lough, then reversing course six hours later. The lough is the largest sea inlet in the British Isles and the busiest marine ecosystem in Ireland. It is also a place where the ordinary sequence of geology, tide and life keeps producing extraordinary results.

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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/strangford-lough-wp/gcsj-strangford-lough-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Strangford Lough: A Fjord Carved by Ice https://qualla.com/strangford-lough/ Photo credit Public domain. Strangford Lough was carved at the end of the last ice age, when glaciers retreating from County Down left behind a basin that the sea promptly filled. Most of the lough is less than ten metres deep, but the central channel can plunge to fifty. The Ards Peninsula almost completel...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/strangford-lough-wp/gcsj-strangford-lough-a-fjord-carved-by-ice.mp3 0:06 2 full Strangford Lough: Three-Quarters of the World's Brent Geese https://qualla.com/strangford-lough/ Photo credit Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0. Strangford was designated Northern Ireland's first Marine Conservation Zone in 2013 and is a Special Area of Conservation, an Important Bird Area and a Ramsar wetland. Each autumn, around three-quarters of the world population of pale-bellied brent geese arrive here to feed on th...

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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/strangford-lough-wp/gcsj-strangford-lough-three-quarters-of-the-worlds-brent-geese.mp3 0:06 3 full Strangford Lough: Where Engineers Test the Future https://qualla.com/strangford-lough/ Photo credit Des Colhoun, CC BY-SA 2.0. The same currents that make Strangford remarkable for wildlife make it irresistible to engineers. In 2008 the lough became home to SeaGen, the world's first commercial tidal stream generator. The 1.2-megawatt turbine fed electricity to the grid for eleven years, with monitoring s...

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Image: Des Colhoun | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/strangford-lough-wp/gcsj-strangford-lough-where-engineers-test-the-future.mp3 0:06 4 full Strangford Lough: The Ferry That Never Stopped https://qualla.com/strangford-lough/ Photo credit Paul McIlroy, CC BY-SA 2.0. A car ferry has connected Portaferry and Strangford across the Narrows for nearly four centuries, without a meaningful break. The crossing takes eight minutes; the alternative road journey around the lough is 47 miles and takes about an hour and a half, which explains why locals ...

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Image: Paul McIlroy | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/strangford-lough-wp/gcsj-strangford-lough-the-ferry-that-never-stopped.mp3 0:06 5 full