Carlingford Marina is located on the southwest shore of the Carlingford Lough inlet that is set into Ireland's northeast coastline. The large 170-berth marina has 20 visitor berths that cater for all vessels ranging from light speedboats to large sailing vessels. There are also club moorings available outside the marina.

Once inside the marina, a vessel is assured complete protection. The marina is accessed via Warrenpoint Port’s illuminated deep water shipping channel. This runs the entire length of the lough and makes the marina accessible at all states of the tide. Careful navigation is generally required for this location owing to exceptional currents in the lower lough and at the entrance.

It is essential to proceed to No. 18 port marker buoy to round the Carlingford Bank before commencing a final approach. This requires a vessel to pass the marina to port, in the channel outside the bank, and then double back to approach the marina from the north inside the bank. Vessels cutting directly across will most likely wind up on the Carlingford Bank. During northwest winds, the inlet is subject to heavy squalls that descend from the hills.

Keyfacts for Carlingford Marina

Position and approaches

Haven position

54° 3.130' N, 006° 11.430' W

At the marina entrance marked with day marks and Port and Starboard lights, QR 4m 1M and QG 4m 1M.

What is the initial fix?

500 metres due south of Hellyhunter, a south cardinal buoy Q(6) +FL1.15s. From here the line of the entrance’s leading light beacons may be picked up.

What are the key points of the approach?

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What's the story here?

Carlingford Marina is situated on the southwest side of the lough about 4 miles from Haulbowline Light House, marking the entrance, and 2½ miles to the northwest of Greenore Point. It is located in a rural setting ½ a mile northwest of Carlingford, the main town of the Cooley Peninsula. The marina basin is enclosed by stone and concrete breakwaters. These are based on a concrete caisson design with a crown wall above the highest astronomical tide level. Within the centre of the marina is a permanently moored ship 40 metres long. Adjoining the marina basin is a dry boat storage area, which will accommodate up to 65 boats depending upon size.

Carlingford Marina can accommodate boats of up to 25 metres LOA, carrying a maximum draft is 2.2 metres (vessels larger than 15.5 metres LOA only by prior arrangement). The marina has a stated depth of 2.2 metres MLWS but the visitor's pontoon has reportedly as little as 1.5 metres over soft mud, so movements may be restricted at low water Springs. Vessels of 2 metres draft are advised to avoid navigating within the marina basin for 2 hours on either side of low water.




The marina has a total of 170 berths with over 20 reserved solely for visiting boats. It is nevertheless advisable to make berthing arrangements in advance with the marina. Carlingford Marina office hours 9 am - 6 pm, 7 days a week, 16, 37(M1) [Carlingford Marina], +353 (0) 42 937 3072, info@carlingfordmarina.ie, www.carlingfordmarina.

Carlingford Sailing Club has four of their complementary deepwater visitor moorings to the north of the marina. These are available by arrangement with the club, Ch. 16 [Carlingford Sailing Club], +353 (0) 42 937 3238, +353 (0) 87 980 7774, info@carlingfordsailingclub.net and have a web site for further information www.carlingfordsailingclub.

How to get in?

Seaward approaches are detailed in eastern Ireland’s coastal overview for Strangford Lough to Dublin Bay . Use the directions provided for Warrenpoint for approaches and the run up the No.18 Port Hand Channel Buoy Fl R (4) 8s.




This mark visibly carries a vessel past Carlingford Harbour, made conspicuous by the town, piers and castle, and then the Marina itself which is situated 1 mile north by northwest. But it is essential to continue as far as buoy No.18 and approach the marina from the north to avoid the Carlingford Bank.



This bank lies in front of the marina, between it and the channel, and terminates before the buoy. The bank's outer edge dries and is steep-to. Between it and the shore, there are extensive shallows reducing from 1.7 to 1.6 in the area to the east of the marina gradually shallowing southward towards Carlingford Harbour.





Once round the northwest end of the Carlingford Bank, taking the No.18 buoy to port, steer a course of about 190°T for the marina. It is about a ½ mile back to the marina entrance that is marked with day marks and Port and Starboard lights, QR 4m 1M and QG 4m 1M. Caution is required with the entrance as it is about 5-7m wide and could prove challenging, especially in rough weather.




The marina basin is enclosed by stone and concrete breakwaters. The northern part of the marina basin accommodates 80 berths and the southern a further 70 pontoon berths. The wait pontoon is the hammerhead immediately inside the entrance. Alternatively, berth as directed by the marina office.

Carlingford Sailing Club's four complementary deepwater visitor moorings are to the north of the marina.

Why visit here?

Ireland possesses a wealth of orally transmitted sagas and histories that is almost unequalled in northern Europe. Those who berth at Carlingford Marina, on the beautiful Cooley Peninsula, come alongside a shoreline that is steeped in this antiquity and mythology. For this area is the setting for one of the nation's most prominent late Iron Age Gaelic saga called the ‘Táin Bó Cúailnge’, otherwise known as 'The Táin Saga' or the 'Rúraíocht' in Irish.

The saga was composed in prose with verse passages in the 7th - 8th century, probably by monks in various versions who were acquainted with such epics as the 'Aeneid'. But this tale is far more ancient than that and was told and retold during the iron age. The 'Bull of Cooley', or 'the driving-off of cows of Cooley', most commonly known as 'The Cattle Raid of Cooley’, is the longest Irish narrative and the central epic of the 'Ulster Cycle' of mythological sagas, if not the most famous tale in Irish mythology.

It portrays an Ireland divided into four kingdoms: Ulaid (Ulster), Connachta(Connaught), Laigin (Leinster), and Mumu (Munster), divisions that persisted into the Middle Ages to become administrative regions of the present day. Within this national context of provincial rivalry is a tale of jealousy, heroism and superhero warrior deeds, largely surrounding the national mythical warrior Cú Chulainn.




The Táin involves the story of the Queen Medb of Connacht and her husband Ailill. Medb was measuring up their worldly possessions and found that they were equal in all respects except one; Ailill owned an outstanding white bull that vastly outclassed anything she had. Although she was powerful, she was jealous of her husband Ailill's white bull. Searching for an equal, Medb discovered the Brown Bull of Cooley in Ulster was its equal and she was determined to have it. The bull Donn Cuailnge was the property of Daire, an Ulster chieftain who refused to lend it to her. So Medb gathered an army and mounted an expedition to seize the bull from Daire and his guardians, Ulster’s legendary and formidable 'Red Branch Knights'.




In the event the formidable men of Ulster were afflicted by a debilitating curse, 'The Pangs of Ulster' that caused them to become, as legend has it… "as feeble as a kittens". This left the seventeen-year-old national hero Cú Chulainn, who was free of the spell, to defend Ulster from Medb's army single-handedly. Much of the action in the Táin surrounds the efforts of the hero Cú Chulainn who challenged each Connacht man to fight one-on-one before they could advance, and he slew them all. This standoff culminated in a 'clash-of-the-titans' battle between Cú Chulainn and his foster brother Fer Díad who had joined the Connaught forces. Both haD been trained in combat by the famous she-warrior Scáthach in Scotland and were well matched. Their battle is one of the most famous passages in early Irish literature and after three days of mortal combat, Fer Díad fell.




In the end Medb managed to seize the bull and brought it home to Connaught. But it did not end well for her as the brown bull went wild and fought the white bull until the earth shook. Finally, Donn Cuailnge, the brown bull of Cooley, caught the white bull by the horns and shook it to pieces. Soon after Donn Cuailnge died whilst making its way home to Ulster. Nor did it end well for Cú Chulainn as Queen Maeve took revenge on him by using sorcerers to lure him to his death.

This is an ancient tale that predates the monk's retelling as, most remarkably, a 2,300-year-old Gundestrup Cauldron unearthed in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup (Denmark), depicts Cú Chulainn triumph in the 'Cattle Raid of Cooley'. The richly-decorated 9 kg silver vessel was found in 1891, far beyond the northern edge of the Celtic region so this was a tale that travelled. Today, in Dublin’s GPO, a statue of the slain Cú Chulainn commemorates the heroes of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Carlingford Marina provides a secure and tranquil intimate base at the foot slopes of the Cooley Mountains. A day's sail from Dublin, Belfast, The Isle of Man, the West Coast of England and North Wales, the marina is the ideal location to arrive at and explore the most picturesque inlet on the east coast of Ireland and the Cooley peninsula. Unlike many parts of Ireland, the Cooley Peninsula provides good walking country. A hiking route encircles the Cooley Peninsula, offering stunning mountain and sea views, whilst passing sites of mythological importance, and medieval buildings.

From a boating perspective, the lough provides both interesting sailing plus a variety of beautiful locations to anchor in waters that are absent of swell. The marina itself offers a unique blend of natural beauty, spectacular panoramas, and myths and legends that combine with a modern-day culture and great boating facilities. Add the backdrop of the Cooley peninsula, with the Carlingford Mountains, dramatic views across Carlingford Lough and County Down’s 'Mountains of Mourne' from the pontoon, and the marina has all the ingredients in place to make it one of the most picturesque berths in Leinster.

What facilities are available?

Carlingford Marina has fuel, water, electricity, toilets, showers plus garbage disposal. Adjoining the marina basin is a hardcore surfaced dry boat storage area, that can accommodate up to 65 boats. Access to the water is provided either by the 50 tonne capacity boat travel lift, or a 7 metre wide concrete slipway into the marina basin. Winter storage can be arranged, and a boat yard can provide repair facilities and a chandlery. Ashore there is a public telephone, free WiFi, and a first class bar and restaurant with spectacular views of the Mourne and Cooley Mountains. The marina has a Helipad Coordinates 54°03’00.7’’N / 6°11’28.3’’W

Within ten minute's walk is Carlingford town, although hardly bigger than a village it has a surprising array of excellent facilities such as hotels, restaurants, pubs, a post office, a reasonably good supermarket, newsagent, launderette, water, fuel, gas and a host of tourist attractions. A launching slip is available at high tide on the east pier.

Useful transport contacts in this area:
Dundalk Train Station P: + 353 42 933 5521
Dundalk Bus Station P: + 353 42 9334075
Newry Bus Station P: + 44 28 30623531
Newry Train Station P: + 44 28 30269271

Any security concerns?

Carlingford Marina is a secured access location.

With thanks to:

Charlie Kavanagh - ISA/RYA Yachtmaster Instructor/Examiner. Photography with thanks to Eric Jones, Norman McMullan, Albert Bridge, Teufelbeutel and Colm Rice.