Killough Bay

Killough harbour in the bay adjacent to Ardglass was first built in.....

..... the 18th Century by Michael Ward who, a man after our own hearts, objected to paying the harbour dues at Strangford!! He owned a mansion called Castle Ward near Strangford and the street in Killough called "Castle Street" still runs all the way to that mansion. Mind you it is a ten mile long road!!

The harbour became a busy place exporting grain for the wars between England and France in the late 18th Century and expanded to support that trade in the early 19th Century. The impressive houses on Castle Street were built by the, then, wealthy corn merchants but when the Napoleonic War ended the bottom dropped out of that market and Killough slowly declined.

Ardglass took over as the main port on that bit of coast and took the fishing trade with it. The village fell into decline and until the late 20th Century the piers at Killough and Coney Island opposite it also became derelict. The pier on the Killough side was restored earlier this century to encourage local fishing; the result is a sturdy pier with no facilities.

The bay offers an anchorage which is sheltered in off shore conditions but anything from the East through to the SSW causes a scend in the bay that, in some conditions, reaches behind the pier. The pier dries at LW so only of use for vessels which can take the ground; the range here is relatively high (about 3m at Neaps) so the pier is accessible after half tide depending on your draft. The harbour is unmanned with no facilities and no ladders.
Killough Bay has been declared an ASSI which covers the shoreline down to the Mean LW line. The pier itself has a security fence at its root preventing acces to or from the pier so it is presumed that you should not tie up here. On the other hand anchoring (but not drying out) is ok.