Lake · United Kingdom
Lough Neagh
Large lake in Northern Ireland
- Area
- 375km²
- Max depth
- 25m
- Average depth
- 7.8m
- Elevation
- 10m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 148km
- Volume
- 2.9km³
Lough Neagh is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 375 km². On average it is 7.8 m deep, and 25 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 10 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lough Neagh?
The water is warmest in July, around 18 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 3 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from July to August: brisk, refreshing swimming.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 18 °C on average in July and 6 °C in January. The driest month is April (62 mm of rain), the wettest October (109 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (84 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 93 | 18 | 1.2 | 24 |
| February | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 74 | 15 | 2.5 | 22 |
| March | 6 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 76 | 16 | 3.5 | 21 |
| April | 9 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 62 | 15 | 5.4 | 19 |
| May | 13 | 15 | 14 | 7 | 77 | 15 | 6.1 | 18 |
| June | 16 | 18 | 17 | 10 | 90 | 17 | 5.4 | 17 |
| July | 18 | 19 | 18 | 11 | 99 | 19 | 4.8 | 16 |
| August | 18 | 18 | 18 | 11 | 106 | 19 | 4.2 | 17 |
| September | 15 | 17 | 16 | 10 | 82 | 16 | 3.8 | 19 |
| October | 11 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 109 | 18 | 2.6 | 21 |
| November | 8 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 105 | 18 | 1.5 | 22 |
| December | 5 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 95 | 18 | 0.9 | 22 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 10 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 4,632 km² of land.
- About 110 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lough Neagh
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 3beaches and swimming spots
- 4campsites
Rams Island, Kinnego Marina Camping & Caravanning, Six Mile Water Caravan Park
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 14marinas and slipways
Kinnego Marina, Ballyronan Marina, Sandy Bay Marina and 11 more
- —ferry piers
- 3viewpoints
- 6hotels, B&Bs and chalets
White River Hotel, Bay View B&B, Glamping Pods, Lisieux House, Bay Cottage Bed and Breakfast and 1 more
- 1fishing spots
Bann Foot
- 14restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Antrim19,661 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Belfast International Airport (BFS), 14 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BFS airport (Belfast)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photos
Seen by visitors
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 6.4 | 6.6 | 8.3 | 11.0 | 13.9 | 16.6 | 18.0 | 17.6 | 15.7 | 12.5 | 9.0 | 6.9 |
| 2020 | +0.7 | +0.4 | −0.1 | +1.1 | +0.7 | +0.1 | −1.1 | +0.6 | ±0.0 | −0.9 | +1.1 | −0.3 |
| 2021 | −1.6 | +0.3 | +1.0 | −1.2 | −1.2 | +0.7 | +2.2 | +0.8 | +1.9 | +1.1 | +0.9 | +0.9 |
| 2022 | +0.6 | +1.4 | +1.6 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +0.2 | +1.4 | +1.9 | +0.7 | +1.4 | +1.5 | −1.3 |
| 2023 | +0.4 | +1.9 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +1.8 | +3.1 | −0.6 | +0.5 | +1.9 | +1.0 | ±0.0 | +1.2 |
| 2024 | −0.1 | +1.8 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +2.2 | −0.6 | −0.4 | +0.3 | −0.2 | +0.7 | +0.9 | +1.6 |
| 2025 | −0.3 | +0.9 | +2.0 | +2.2 | +2.5 | +1.2 | +1.5 | +1.6 | −0.1 | +0.2 | +0.5 | +0.9 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
IrelandAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q206942) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
