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The Great Britain Guide

Wildlife reserves · Northern Ireland

Magilligan

Magilligan is a peninsula at the mouth of Lough Foyle in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is an extensive 79,000-acre (32,000-hectare) coastal site, part military firing range and part nature

Point Road - geograph.org.uk - 7242102

Malcolm Neal — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit
2 h–4 h
Best time of year
Autumn & winter (migration & wildfowl)

About

Magilligan is a peninsula at the mouth of Lough Foyle in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is an extensive 79,000-acre (32,000-hectare) coastal site, part military firing range and part nature reserve, and is home to HM Prison Magilligan. The tip of the peninsula, which lies less than a mile from Greencastle in County Donegal, is known as Magilligan Point. The two are linked by a ferry service.

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From the Wikipedia article

Magilligan is a peninsula at the mouth of Lough Foyle in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is an extensive 79,000-acre (32,000-hectare) coastal site, part military firing range and part nature reserve, and is home to HM Prison Magilligan. The tip of the peninsula, which lies less than a mile from Greencastle in County Donegal, is known as Magilligan Point. The two are linked by a ferry service.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

The peninsula historically belonged to a district known as "MacGilligan's Country", which formed a major part of the barony of Keenaght. Magilligan served as the base line for triangulation for the mapping of Ireland in the 19th century. Colonel Thomas Colby chose Magilligan due to the flatness of the strand and its proximity to Scotland which, along with the rest of Britain, had been accurately mapped in previous decades. A straight line precisely 30533 feet was measured from North Station to Ballykelly in 1828, from which all other references were measured. The survey finished in 1846 when County Kerry was mapped.

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates
55.1870, -6.9580

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is Magilligan?
Magilligan is in Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 55.1870°, -6.9580°.