Strangford

Strangford Lough taken from Portaferry across the Narrows towards the village of Strangford.
The Strangford Narrows are at the entrance to Strangford Lough on the East coast of N.I. just to the west of the south end of the Isle of Man. Strangford Lough is a tidal inland lough about 15 miles long and all the tide flows in and out through the narrows between the towns of Portaferry and Strangford. Spring tides flow either way at 8-10 knots at the narrowest point. There are two interesting effects.
Firstly the narrows flow out to the south-southwest and the prevailing winds are straight up the Irish sea from the southwest. On a spring ebb in a (very common) strong southwesterly you get huge, very short seas at the "bar" - typically 10m apart and 6m+ high. The tide in Strangford is also two hours behind the Irish sea, so you get the "falling off the end" effect to make things worse.

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