Lough Swilly

Coordinates: 55°08′17″N 7°29′56″W / 55.138°N 7.499°W / 55.138; -7.499
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lough Swilly
Loch Súilí (
Primary inflows
River Swilly
SettlementsInishowen
View from the International Space Station: Derry and the Ulster coastline, with Lough Swilly to the west and Lough Foyle and Inishowen to the north of the city

Lough Swilly (Irish: Loch Súilí, meaning "lake of eyes")[1] in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three glacial fjords in Ireland.[2][3]

Name

See also: River Swilly § Name

Both Lough Swilly (Irish: Loch Súilí) and the adjoining River Swilly (An tSúileach)[4] have the same derivation,[5][6][7] and are sometimes associated with a legendary multi-eyed sea monster, Suileach, that was reputedly killed by Saint Colmcille (521–597).[8][9] In The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places (1900), the historian Patrick Weston Joyce writes that súil may refer to whirlpools or to eyes and that suileach means "abounding in eyes or whirlpools".[7]

Geography and ecology

Located on the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal, the northern extremities of the lough are marked by

lough include Buncrana on Inishowen and Rathmullan on the western side. At the southern end of the lough lies Letterkenny
.

In the south of the lough a number of islands (Burt,

brent geese.[citation needed
]

The lough is known for its wildlife-watching (dolphins, porpoise, seabirds, migratory geese and swans) and diving on a number of ship wrecks,[1] including SS Laurentic sunk by a German mine (possible torpedo), which went down with 3,211 ingots of gold of which 3,191 were recovered.[10]

History

The lough, and the

shell middens dated to approximately 7000 BC.[11]

Swilly was the departure point for the '

Gaelic chieftains in Ireland at that time), set sail from Rathmullan with ninety of their followers.[12][13]

During a gale on 4 December 1811, the Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate HMS Saldanha was shipwrecked in Lough Swilly. There were no survivors out of the estimated 253 aboard, with approximately 200 bodies washed up on shore.[14]

A Martello tower that sits on the banks of Lough Swilly.

Due to its natural shelter and its depth, the lough was an important naval port. In October 1798, immediately prior to the outbreak of the

United Irishmen, plus troops to assist in 1798 rebellion, was intercepted and defeated in a naval battle at the entrance to Lough Swilly. Subsequently Tone was captured and taken ashore at Buncrana on the east side of the Swilly.[15]

A subsequent reassessment of the threat of invasion led to the building of a series of fortifications guarding the different approaches and landing points within the lough which were completed between 1800 and 1820.

First World War the War Office improved the Napoleonic forts and their armaments as well as adding another fort at the entrance to the lough at Lenan Head with 9-inch (23 cm) guns (12-mile range) – the largest in Ireland at the time. The remains of these fortifications are still at Lenan Head Fort, Fort Dunree (now a military and wildlife museum), Ned's Point, Buncrana, Inch Fort and on the west coast at Rathmullan, Knockalla and Macamish Point.[18]

During the First World War, the lough was used by the Royal Navy as an anchorage for elements of the

Treaty Ports specified in the Anglo-Irish Treaty until its final handing over at Fort Dunree in 1938.[20]

According to exhibits at Fort Dunree, during World War II Irish troops operated the guns there with explicit instructions to fire at any ship that might threaten Irish neutrality by entering the natural harbour. On one occasion in this period, a Royal Navy ship entered the lough and - while it did not initially respond to signals that it should turn back - left the area without any action being taken.[citation needed]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Pierce 2011, Irish Times.
  2. ^ Beattie & Lynch 2000, p. 4.
  3. ^ "Killary Harbour". Discover Ireland. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  4. ^ Mills 2011, p. 446.
  5. ^ Northern Ireland Place-Name Project [@placenamesni] (6 August 2021). "Lough Swilly takes its name from the Swilly River in Donegal. It has its origins in the Irish name An tSúileach 'the one with eyes'" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ "Loch Súilí / Lough Swilly (see archival records)". Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  7. ^ a b Joyce 1900, p. 440.
  8. ^ MacKillop 2004.
  9. ^ Donegal County Council.
  10. ^ Scoltock 2016, synopsis.
  11. ^ Kimball 1998, p. 163.
  12. ^ "Flight Of The Earls Centre". Donegal.ie. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  13. ^ Beattie & Lynch 2000, p. 78.
  14. ^ Maguire 2018.
  15. ^ Beattie & Lynch 2000, p. 16.
  16. ^ Kerrigan 1995, p. 236-242.
  17. ^ Stevenson 1995, p. 11-28.
  18. ^ Kerrigan 1995, p. 266-267.
  19. ^ Friel 2015.
  20. ^ a b Beattie & Lynch 2000, p. 18.

Sources

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lough Swilly.
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