Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Carlingford Ferry

#ferries - More than 6,000 passengers travelled aboard the Carlingford Lough Ferry over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

To accommodate demand for the service, Independent.ie reports, that the ferry company had two vessels in operation on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. With both the Frazer Aisling Gabrielle, a 44 car capacity vessel and the Frazer Mariner, a 22 car capacity vessel, making the crossing.

This meant a maximum wait time of under 30 minutes for the many vehicles queueing at the ferry terminals at Greenore and Greencastle.

With the sun shining, some passengers were even treated to special sight on the Lough when a small pod of bottle nose dolphin decided to come out and play on Easter Monday.

The operator Afloat adds launched the route in summer 2017 as the first ever carferry service on the cross-border lough. 

Published in Ferry
Tagged under

#FerryNews- As previously reported, plans for a car ferry service linking Greenore and Greencastle moved a step closer yesterday when its developers formally submitted planning applications to both Louth County Council and the north's planning service.

Carlingford Ferries, which is privately funding the scheme to the tune of £7 million, says the service could be operational within 12 months.

The proposal - which has been on the agenda for 30 years but has never advanced to the planning stage - would see a roll-on-roll-off service launched across the mouth of Carlingford Lough, going 1.3 miles between Greenore on the southern side and Greencastle in the Mournes area.

The crossing would take just 15 minutes and cuts out a 33-mile car journey of often more than an hour, depending on congestion in Newry.

The project is being financed by three families from Clare and Limerick with significant experience in the car ferry industry in the Shannon region. For much more on this story The Irish News reports.

 

Published in Ferry

Marine Wildlife Around Ireland One of the greatest memories of any day spent boating around the Irish coast is an encounter with marine wildlife.  It's a thrill for young and old to witness seabirds, seals, dolphins and whales right there in their own habitat. As boaters fortunate enough to have experienced it will testify even spotting a distant dorsal fin can be the highlight of any day afloat.  Was that a porpoise? Was it a whale? No matter how brief the glimpse it's a privilege to share the seas with Irish marine wildlife.

Thanks to the location of our beautiful little island, perched in the North Atlantic Ocean there appears to be no shortage of marine life to observe.

From whales to dolphins, seals, sharks and other ocean animals this page documents the most interesting accounts of marine wildlife around our shores. We're keen to receive your observations, your photos, links and youtube clips.

Boaters have a unique perspective and all those who go afloat, from inshore kayaking to offshore yacht racing that what they encounter can be of real value to specialist organisations such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who compile a list of sightings and strandings. The IWDG knowledge base has increased over the past 21 years thanks in part at least to the observations of sailors, anglers, kayakers and boaters.

Thanks to the IWDG work we now know we share the seas with dozens of species who also call Ireland home. Here's the current list: Atlantic white-sided dolphin, beluga whale, blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, fin whale, Gervais' beaked whale, harbour porpoise, humpback whale, killer whale, minke whale, northern bottlenose whale, northern right whale, pilot whale, pygmy sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, sei whale, Sowerby's beaked whale, sperm whale, striped dolphin, True's beaked whale and white-beaked dolphin.

But as impressive as the species list is the IWDG believe there are still gaps in our knowledge. Next time you are out on the ocean waves keep a sharp look out!