The Ballinderry holds something most Irish rivers lost a century ago: a breeding population of freshwater pearl mussels, an animal so intolerant of pollution that its mere presence is the best water-quality certificate going. The upper river is one of only six places in Northern Ireland where the mussel hangs on, and it shares the gravels with another rarity, the Atlantic stream crayfish. That stretch above Cookstown is a Special Area of Conservation and an ASSI for exactly this reason.
The river rises a little northwest of Pomeroy, drops fast off the Sperrins through Cookstown, and runs on for most of its course as the line between County Tyrone and County Londonderry before emptying into the western corner of Lough Neagh. The conservation designation puts the protected upper stretch at 24.1 km, rising at 195m and reaching Cookstown at 45m, which tells you the main thing about it: this is a fast-flowing spate river, not a placid lowland one. It can change level fast after upland rain, and that matters whether you’ve come to fish it or just to look at it.
Fishing
This is the reason most people seek the Ballinderry out. It’s a renowned trout river that has also picked up good salmon runs in recent years, but the fish worth knowing about is the dollaghan, a large Lough Neagh brown trout that runs up the feeder rivers to spawn and is found in only a handful of waters anywhere. If you fish one stretch, fish the lower river in autumn, when the dollaghan are moving up from the lough.
Permits and the season are run by the Ballinderry Rivers Trust rather than bought over the counter, so contact them before you travel; the game fishing season runs from 1 March to 31 October. Being a spate river, it fishes best with water in it, a day or two after rain rather than in a flat dry spell. The mix of deep pools and gravelly runs suits both fly and light spinning, and catch-and-release is encouraged to protect the stocks the trust works hard to maintain, including the salmon and dollaghan reared at its own hatchery.
Walking the banks
Set expectations here: there’s no continuous waymarked riverside trail, and much of the bank runs through farmland and private estate ground. This isn’t a walk-the-whole-river destination. What you get instead are short stretches reached from Cookstown and from local routes such as the Dunnamore river walk, on generally gentle, often muddy ground. Wear boots, and after wet weather expect the lower paths to be waterlogged.
The river is also paddled. Local clubs use it for canoeing as well as fishing, though again the spate character means levels and conditions are worth checking first.
Killymoon, Lissan and the woods
The prettiest built thing on the river is Killymoon Castle on the edge of Cookstown, a Gothic Revival house of 1803 designed by John Nash, the architect of much of Regency London, and now a Grade A listed building set in woodland above the water. Upstream, Lissan House sits among walking trails along the river and the Lissan waterfall, and the National Trust’s Wellbrook Beetling Mill, where linen was once pounded to a sheen by water power, stands in a wooded valley nearby.
For more ground to cover, the town of Cookstown is the obvious base for shops and food, Drum Manor Forest Park has easy woodland trails close by, and the Sperrin Mountains rise to the north where the river starts.
Practical information
Access and fishing aside, there are no entry fees, and the river is open all year. Cookstown has the most reliable parking and is the sensible place to start; elsewhere it’s lay-bys and informal points, and public transport in the rural sections is thin, so a car helps. Mobile signal can be patchy in the upper valley, so don’t rely on a phone for navigation.
For permits, the season, or the conservation work, the Ballinderry Rivers Trust is based at 231A Orritor Road, Cookstown.