Overview
The walk along Ballymacran Bank runs roughly 9 km (about 5.5 miles) along the shore of Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland’s largest estuary, just west of Limavady. The path sits on top of a sea wall, and that wall is the first thing worth knowing about: it’s one of the banks built about 170 years ago by the Honourable Irish Society, part of a drainage scheme to carry the Belfast–Derry railway across the shore and reclaim new farmland from the mudflats. The man-made banks run for some 8 km from the mouth of the River Roe to Ballykelly.
What you get for the effort is a flat, big-sky walk with the hills of Inishowen across the water to the west and the Binevenagh escarpment to the north-east. There are two reasons to come, and they pull in opposite directions on the tide: the birds, best at high water when the waders are pushed up onto the bank, and the aircraft wreck, only visible at low water. Pick one before you set out.
The WWII aircraft wreck
The remains of a World War II aircraft lie in the estuary bed about 2 km south of the start, near where the Burnfoot River meets the lough. At low tide the wreck emerges from the mud; at high water it disappears completely. If this is what you’ve come for, check the tide tables and aim for the bottom of the tide – on a strong spring high it will be well under, and you’ll have walked out for nothing.
Birds and wildlife
Lough Foyle is a Ramsar site, an RSPB reserve and a Natura 2000 area, and the mudflats off Ballymacran are a dependable stopover for waders and wildfowl. High tide concentrates the birds onto the upper banks where you can actually see them – oystercatchers, curlew and dunlin working the wet sand, ducks out on the channels. Grey seals haul out on the sandbanks, and otters have been recorded near the mouth of the River Roe, though they take some luck to see.
Getting there
The start is at the end of Shore Avenue. From the A2 west of Limavady, turn onto the B69, then left onto the B510 (Lomond Road), follow signs for the Carrowmore Activity Centre, continue onto Carrowclare Road, and turn onto Shore Avenue. There’s a free lay-by at the end – don’t block the railway level crossing or the access gates.
A caveat worth setting straight: this is an out-and-back, not a loop, so the 9 km figure is the full there-and-return, around 1.5 to 2 hours at a steady pace. The surface is flat but it’s a rough track and sea-wall top, uneven and slippery after rain, so the route is harder going for wheelchairs and mobility aids than its flatness suggests. There are no facilities on the trail at all; the nearest toilets, refreshments and parking are in Limavady, Ballykelly, and at Benone and Magilligan Point. Keep dogs under close control through the spring and summer nesting season.
For a longer day, the path links into the wider Lough Foyle Trail – continue north towards Benone Strand’s Blue Flag beach, or south towards the Magilligan Point nature reserve.