Overview
Black Lough, known just as often by its older name Ballysaggart Lough, is a 42.5-acre lake on the southern edge of Dungannon, part of the old waterway built to feed the Moygashel mills. For years it was one of the town’s best-kept secrets, known mainly to birdwatchers, and that’s still the right way to think about it: the walk round is short, the real draw is the birds and the quiet. A busy road runs close to the car park, but the water and the screen of mature trees swallow the noise once you’re a minute along the path.
If you’ve a choice, come early or in winter. The people who know it best rate the still winter and early-spring mornings, when the surface goes glassy and the birds are most active, over a sunny summer afternoon.
The walk
The path is a flat, compacted gravel circuit that holds up well after rain, so it suits wheelchairs, pushchairs and anyone who’d rather avoid steps or stiles. At an easy pace it’s about 20 minutes. One honest caveat: it doesn’t yet go the whole way round, so part of the loop is an out-and-back until Mid Ulster District Council extends it around the full circumference, as it has been planning to. Picnic tables and summer seats are dotted along the shore, and across the water you get the spires of the Church of Ireland and St Patrick’s rising over the town.
Birds, fish and habitat
The bird count is the headline: 102 species recorded here, 18 of them on the endangered list. Regulars include curlew, teal, hen harrier, mallard, wigeon, goldeneye and whooper swan, alongside the everyday ducks, swans and Canada geese; tufted ducks and cormorants come in off Lough Neagh and settle by the crannóg. Over the years birdwatchers have logged genuine rarities too – a vagrant lesser scaup photographed in 2006, plus Iceland, glaucous and yellow-legged gulls.
Anglers come for coarse fishing: pike, perch, roach, rudd, bream, tench and eel, with the deeper water near the sluice at the northern end the spot to head for. The lough is designated an Area of Special Scientific Interest for its wetland flora and fauna – fen, swamp, freshwater communities and wet woodland – and the volunteer Ballysaggart Environmental Group has worked to protect that habitat since it formed in 2004.
The crannóg and the name
Out on the lough sits a crannóg, an ancient lake dwelling, though you’d hardly know it: in 2025 a local councillor called it “almost criminal” that there’s no sign or information about it. The name Ballysaggart means ‘townland of the priests’, after a priory that stood near the lough before moving to Donaghmore around 400 years ago. In Irish the lake is also Loch Dhubh, the black lough, which is where the English name comes from – not, as is sometimes written, from the priests.
Local lore
The lough has frozen hard enough to tempt the reckless. A car was driven across the ice in 1963, and in the 1970s a man was reported to police for skating on it and ‘endangering life’. It can be dangerous in the other direction too: a swimmer drowned crossing it in 2002. This is a lake for walking and watching, not for getting into.
Practical information
Entry and hours – Free, open year-round in daylight, no booking.
Getting there and parking – The car park is signposted off the Eglish Road, about a five-minute drive from Dungannon town centre. There’s ample space; repairs to the entrance wall and fence have been underway but don’t affect the walk.
Facilities – Picnic tables and seats around the shore, but no toilets on site, so use the town before you come.
Dogs – Welcome, but keep them on a lead through the nesting season to protect ground-nesting birds.
Come on a still winter morning with binoculars and a flask. The road noise drops, the water goes flat, and the birds – not the 20-minute loop – are the reason to be here.