Lough Gill
Lough Gill is a shallow coastal lagoon on the western edge of the village, at the base of the Maharees. It is roughly two and a half kilometres long, it averages barely a foot deep, and a sluice holds its level and lets the outflow away into Tralee Bay. That arrangement keeps most of the salt out while leaving the water faintly brackish, which is why it holds freshwater species alongside lagoon specialists: beaked tasselweed, horned pondweed, fringing reed and club-rushes, and the rare stonewort Chara canescens.
The shallow, warm, gently shelving margins are exactly what natterjack toads need to spawn, and this is one of the country's most important breeding sites. The National Parks and Wildlife Service records tadpoles here in the tens of thousands, and found a new breeding site on the north shore during its last survey. The largest natterjack population in Ireland, and possibly in Britain and Ireland, is in the Special Area of Conservation this lough sits within, with the Maharees and the golf course returning more egg strings than the lough itself.
In winter the interest changes completely. The wider site is an internationally important wetland for wintering waders and wildfowl, with whooper swan, golden plover and bar-tailed godwit in nationally important numbers, and chough feeding on the dunes.
The facts
- Designations
- Tralee Bay and Magharees Peninsula SAC (002070) and Tralee Bay Complex SPA (004188)
- Toads
- Spawning from April to July, with the call carrying a long way on a still evening
- Birds
- Whooper swans and wintering waders, roughly October to March
- Access
- A small car park, with a marked path to the lake's single pier
- Local advice
- Castlegregory Visitor Information Centre, Tailor’s Row, 066 713 9422
Good to know
There is a small car park from which a well-marked path leads to the lake's single pier. That is where to watch the swans. At sunset it is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
There is no hide, and no further path beyond the pier. Much of the shore is farmland, and the golf club holds the ground between the lough and Brandon Bay, which is private. The information centre on Tailor's Row will tell you where you can and cannot walk.
The natterjack is protected under the Wildlife Act and is Red-listed as Endangered. Handling or disturbing toads, spawn or tadpoles is an offence, not a matter of etiquette. The spawn sits in very shallow water at the margin, which is precisely where a person or a dog would wade, so stay out of the shallows between April and July and keep dogs close.
The famous rasping chorus is a spring event. Do not come in August expecting to hear it.
How we checked. Designations, habitat and survey figures from National Parks and Wildlife Service site synopses and its natterjack monitoring report IWM107. The car park and pier are local knowledge rather than a published source. Opening hours and prices on this coast change without notice, so ring before you travel. If anything here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.