Overview
Comber owes its name to the Enler. The town’s Irish name, An Comar, means ‘the confluence’, and it marks the spot at the bottom of Park Way where the Enler meets the Glen River to form the Comber River, which then runs on into Strangford Lough. That’s the short version of why a modest, unshowy watercourse in eastern County Down is worth knowing about: not for drama, but for what it built.
The river rises near Newtownards and winds south through farmland, passing Dundonald on the way – it runs right through Moat Park, below the Norman motte known as Dundonald Fort – before reaching Comber. This is flat, slow, drumlin country, not the mountain rivers of the Mournes, and it makes for easy, quiet walking rather than spectacle.
What the river powered
For two centuries the Enler was a working river. The Andrews family took over the Old Corn Mill on its bank in the 18th century and built an industrial cluster around it – a linen wash mill and bleach green, a beetling mill, and, in 1771, a large flour mill. Water diverted from the Enler also drove whiskey: the Lower Distillery, built in 1825 by William Byrne, was a converted paper mill, one of the works behind the once-famous Comber whiskey. Comber, where the river ends its run, is also the home town of Thomas Andrews, who designed the Titanic.
The river’s story runs deeper still. In the mid-1980s an early Mesolithic site was found beside the Enler in the townland of Mount Alexander, where there may once have been a small lake – evidence that people were living along this water thousands of years before the mills.
Walking and wildlife
The easiest way to see the river is from the Comber Greenway, the 7-mile traffic-free walking and cycling route on the old Belfast and County Down railway line. It crosses the Enler on a series of reinstated bridges and runs close to the water past the Billy Neill soccer centre, with free parking and, often, a coffee van at the trailheads. Moat Park in Dundonald is the other easy access point, with paths, playing fields and a play park.
Kingfishers are the wildlife to watch for – a blue flash low over the water is the giveaway. The river was the subject of a Wild Trout Trust advisory visit in 2016, and in 2017 the Rivers Agency carried out a habitat-enhancement scheme, widening channels and laying spawning gravels and groynes to help fish; the Inler Angling Club looks after the angling.
One honest caveat
The Enler has a poor pollution record for such a small river. A farmer was fined £3,000 for polluting it in 2015, and in 2023 a sewage spill caused a fish kill that the angling club had to flag. It’s a pretty enough stream on a good day, but it isn’t pristine, and the lower reaches in particular have taken knocks.
Practical information
- Access: Best reached on foot or by bike from the Comber Greenway, or at Moat Park in Dundonald. There are no formal riverside car parks beyond these; on rural lanes between Newtownards and Comber, park legally and don’t block farm entrances.
- Fishing: Angling on Northern Ireland waters needs the relevant DAERA rod licence; non-anglers need nothing.
- Safety: The banks are slippery after rain and the river can rise quickly in spate. Keep children and dogs back from the edge.
Nearby
- Comber Greenway – the traffic-free route that shadows the river between Belfast and Comber.
- Strangford Lough – the tidal sea lough the Comber River feeds into, with bird-rich mudflats at its head.
If you want the river at its best, walk the Greenway stretch near Comber on a still morning and watch the water for a kingfisher; that’s the Enler doing the one thing it still does better than anywhere else nearby.