Strangford Lough

54.483333333333 - 5.5833333333333Koordinaten: 54 ° 29 '0 " N, 5 ° 35 ' ​​0 " W

The Strangford Lough (Irish: Loch Cuan ), southeast of Belfast in County Down situated in Northern Ireland, is a great of the Irish Sea by the Ards Peninsula, except for the narrow strait between the villages of Portaferry and Strangford separate 18647 hectare natural harbor. It is 26 km long and about 6 miles wide. A third of the lake with its 365 islands near the shore, however, is so flat that it falls dry at low water. The lake is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The largest city in the shore area of ​​the lake is Newtonards. In its short-range nature reserve North Strangford Lough lies.

The highest elevation on the lake is the Scrabo Hill near Newtonards. From the top you can see in the West Belfast, the Mourne Mountains to the south and southeast over the Lough, the Ards Peninsula and the Isle of Man. A late Bronze Age - Iron Age Rath was on the summit of the hill was inhabited since the Neolithic period.

Of particular scientific interest, the archaeological sites around the lake, including 50 Mesolithic. Predominantly consisting of native oysters 28 Køkkenmøddinger (English: midden ). Larger concentrations are at the Ardmillan Bay, on Mahee Iceland and Rough Iceland, as well as at Castle Espie, on Chapel Iceland. Before the island a stone fish fence (English Fish weir ) was discovered by aerial photography. Rough Iceland lies between Comber and Newtownards and is a glacially formed landscape a drumlin, which is accessible during low tide on foot. From Mesolithic period plurality of trenches, several flint artifacts and two fire pits have been discovered; one within a Køkkenmøddingers. An excavation in 1997 yielded a dark layer of sand with shards of medieval pottery.

In the tidal area of Chapel Iceland up to 300 meters long stone structures were detected, which are interpreted as fish traps of the nearby Cistercian monastery.

SeaGen tidal power plant

Since April 2008, running in the strait that connects the Strangford Lough with the open ocean, a tidal power plant called SeaGen (power 1.2 MW ), consisting of an upright in the water tower on which two large rotors are fixed by the Tide currents are rotated.