The Inland Sea

Known as Ulster’s inland sea, Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the UK and Ireland, Finn Mullen tells more about its history and windsurfing.

- Finn Mullen

Next time Northern Ireland is on the news, and a map flashes up on screen, have a look at the large body of water in the middle, that’s Lough Neagh! Whilst little known, it is actually the largest lake in the British Isles. In terms of famous windsurfing lakes, it’s bigger than Lake Garda and whilst the winds are certainly not as consistent as Garda, a good day can whip up streaks of wind blown waves across the lake for multiple rides and jumps in one run. Think of freshwater windsurfing and most people imagine a small lake with a few ducks and nonplaning conditions, but a lake on the scale of Lough Neagh has its advantages, no tide, no current and unobstructed wind across its long, flat and slightly higher than sea level shores!

SIZE

In terms of numbers, Lough Neagh, or as locals call it simply, ‘The Lough’, is 30.5 km on its longest length (SW-NE), has a maximum width of 12.1 km (W-E), a length of shoreline approximately 125 km and measures over 300 square km’s. It contains over 800 billion gallons of water, but with an average depth of only nine metres and maximum depth of 34 metres, it is relatively shallow, certainly compared to Loch Ness in Scotland at 230 metres deep. The shallow waters do mean lots of bumps for windsurfing though, even if there are no deep dwelling monsters!

ORIGINS