Lough Neagh shores

Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the United Kingdom and Ireland, covering around 150 square miles and bordered by five of Northern Ireland's six counties. Its shoreline offers a varied mix of reedbeds, sandy bays, working marinas and quiet country parks, making it one of the most important wildlife and leisure landscapes in the region.

Popular access points include Antrim Lough Shore Park, Ballyronan Marina, Kinnego Marina near Lurgan and the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre on Oxford Island, a National Nature Reserve known for its hides, walking trails and exhibitions on the lough's ecology. The waters are internationally important for wintering wildfowl, with vast flocks of pochard, tufted duck and whooper swan, and the lough sustains a centuries-old eel fishery centred on Toomebridge.

Around the shores, visitors will find waymarked walking and cycling routes, sailing clubs, fishing stands and lakeside cafés. The wider area is rich in folklore, said in legend to have been formed when the giant Finn McCool scooped out a handful of earth and flung it into the Irish Sea, creating the Isle of Man.