Blackstaff River

The Blackstaff's name probably references a primitive crossing formed from blackened beams of oak. It was known in Irish as the Abhainn Bheara or Owenvarra, meaning "river of the staff". In earlier times the Blackstaff flowed into the Lagan immediately above the present-day Queen's Bridge at what is now Victoria Square, and formed a wide, muddy estuary that extended as far up as Sandy Row. Here, it was spanned by a stone crossing called the Saltwater Bridge, which stood where the Boyne Bridge stands today. In the 17th century the situation of the Blackstaff became a problem for the newly built town of Belfast, which found its potential for expansion limited by the mud flats on its southern…