Donaghadee Harbour is located on the northeast coast of Ireland immediately outside the southern entrance to Belfast Lough and south of Copeland Island. It is a small fishing port where vessels may berth alongside the pier.

In offshore or settled conditions, with the absence of scend, the harbour offers a tolerable berth. It should be avoided in even the most moderate of easterly conditions. Onshore winds create a heavy scend that wraps around the inner harbour. Access is straightforward night or day, at any stage of the tide.

Visitor berths are limited here and are mostly occupied in the season. Those who berth here should keep a keen weather eye out for any onshore winds as the wide open entrance admits the swell so freely that it quickly becomes either inconvenient or too rough to lie alongside the pier.

Keyfacts for Donaghadee Harbour

Position and approaches

Haven position

54° 38.707' N, 005° 31.860' W

The position of Donaghadee Lighthouse, a white tower Iso WR 4s 16m 18/14M, standing on the head of the south pier.

What is the initial fix?

This is a ½ mile out from the middle of the pierheads on a bearing of 234° T off Donaghadee Church, 600 metres further inshore, between the pierheads.

What are the key points of the approach?

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What's the story here?

Donaghadee Harbour is a small and shallow harbour entered about a ½ mile south-southeastward of Foreland Point. It is formed by a bight enclosed by two handsome cut stone piers, of which and rather unusually, the North Pier is detached from the mainland. It acts more as an isolated breakwater for the South Pier that runs out northwestward from the rocky foreshore at the south side of the bay and has the prominent Donaghadee Light tower at its head. Both run parallel nearer the shore and then turn to converge to form the harbour’s 46 metres wide entrance that opens northeastward. Within the pier is a single tidal basin. The small resort town of Donaghadee stands close west along the shore of the bight southwestward of the piers with a population of about 7000 people.




The harbour basin has depths of up to 2.7 metres immediately inside the south pier where there is a visitors' berth. Depth in the entrance is 4.0 metres with 3.4 metres to 2.7 metres in the central part of the harbour from which it shoals towards the head of the harbour where it mostly dries. There is less water on the north side of the harbour. The harbour offers good shelter in most winds but it is unsafe to lie alongside the pier when the wind is in any way onshore as the entrance allows a heavy swell to enter.

How to get in?

Use the details available in the northeast Ireland’s Coastal Overview for Malin Head to Strangford Lough for local approaches and the Donaghadee Sound for local tidal optimisations. Donaghadee Harbour with its massive breakwaters and the light tower will be visible for several miles along the coast.




Vessels approaching from the east should stay outside and south of the islands, leave Mew and Copeland Islands well clear to starboard, and then the run into the harbour will be unobstructed.


Copeland Sound, between the islands, is best avoided owing to the two challenging and unmarked rocky shoals called Platters and Ninion Bushes. Of these Ninion Bushes, situated a ½ mile off from the northeast point of Copeland Island, is particularly dangerous with a wide area of awash rocks.




Vessels approaching from the south should stay a mile offshore in the vicinity of Ballyferis Point. Closer approaches keeping 600 metres out from the shoreline, or on the 20-metre contour or deeper, clears all dangers. A useful tidal eddy may be availed of that runs 9 hours northward and on the flood, only 3 hours southward, is available from Ballyferris point to Foreland point quite close in as detailed it the Donaghadee Sound .




From the initial fix Donaghadee Lighthouse, a white tower Iso WR 4s 16m 18/14M standing on the head of the south pier, will be clearly visible. At night it shows a sectored light Red 326°-shore, White-326°.

Donaghadee Harbour - Iso.W.R. 4s 17m W.18/R.14M position: 54° 38.7´ N, 005° 31.8´ W




The preferred line of approach is to track in on a bearing of 234° T, keeping the square steeple of Donaghadee Parish Church, 600 further metres inshore, between the pierheads all the way in. This path clears outlying rocks that have from 0.9 to 2.4 metres of water over them. These extend 200 metres from the pier heads both to the north and south of the entrance. Make particular note of The Wee Scotchman Rock which is a sunken ledge with less than 1.4 metres in places that extends 300 metres east-northeast from the South Pier.





Once between the piers turn hard to port as the single visitor berth is to be found immediately inside and to the southeast at the end of the South Pier beneath the light tower. Alongside depths from 2.1 to 2.7 metres may be found at low water over a 30-metre stretch of the pier.




Local boats moor stern-too on running moorings along the wall further in and there are many small boat moorings in the centre of the basin. Beyond this, the harbour gradually shelves to the foreshore which shows a clean sandy beach that dries out as far as the inner end of the north pier.





If the harbour becomes uncomfortable, or an adverse weather forecast is received, be prepared to move quickly or approach the separately administered and privately owned Copelands Marina. This is very well-protected but often overcrowded so it cannot be relied upon.

Why visit here?

Donaghadee derives its name from the Gaelic 'Domhnach Daoi' of which the original meaning is a little uncertain today. What is clear is the initial 'Domhnach' part of its name is derived from an early term for 'church'. Borrowed from Latin 'dominicum' it has traditionally been associated with St Patrick's and Ireland’s Early Christian period. This would indicate that a church was established here during these times but no evidence of its existence remains today.




It is the latter 'Daoi' part of the name where uncertainty exists. Some believe it is derived from the Irish word 'Díth', or 'Domhnach Díth', 'church of loss' alluding to the dangerous seaway immediately offshore. Others believe it might be the church of St David, the 6th-century bishop of the Welsh, whose Welsh name 'Dewi' is very close to 'Daoi'. The most likely origin is thought to be based on the word daoi meaning 'embankment, moat or house'.




It is thought likely that this refers to Donaghadee's medieval Anglo-Norman Motte that can be seen today. The area's earliest known and the remaining structure was situated on the high ground overlooking the town. If this is the correct origin, that the name stems from 'Domhnach Daoi', 'church of the motte', it would appear to date to Anglo-Norman times rather than the Early Christian period. The Motte, or 'The Moat' as it is known, remains one of the town’s most prominent features. It was initially used as a defensive structure, and provided an excellent look-out post over the town and seawards towards the Copeland Islands. Apart from this, little else is recorded of the immediate area or the town until it was planted by Sir Hugh Montgomery in the 17th Century.





The settlement had close and constant intercourse with the inhabitants of Scotland so that they ever have been, as it were, one and the same people. Being the closest point to Scotland, on most days the Scottish coast is visible to the naked eye, a small jetty was built here and maintained as the result of a 1616 Royal Warrant. The jetty’s limited size also limited travel between the Ards, the Rhins of Galloway and Portpatrick, which was also owned by Montgomery. He remedied this by building a small harbour here in 1626 that was subsequently improved upon in 1640. By 1711 ownership of the town belonged to the Delacherois family. Daniel Delacherois renovated Montgomery’s original harbour between 1775 and 1785 and this structure remained until the completion of the new harbour.




The foundation stone of the new harbour was laid by the Marquis of Downshire on 1 August 1821. This deep-water harbour was constructed to support the Irish Mail Packet service to Portpatrick, Scotland, 7 miles to the northeast. The initial plans and surveys for this ambitious undertaking had been made by John Rennie Senior, the celebrated engineer whose works included Waterloo, Southwark and London Bridges over the Thames. However, he died within two months of beginning the work and was succeeded by his son, John, later Sir John Rennie. Rennie had as his resident engineer a fellow Scot, David Logan, who assisted Robert Stevenson with the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Donaghadee’s curves are not only a triumph of stone carving but have all the hallmarks of the advanced thinking that went into the legendary Bell Rock Lighthouse.




The new harbour had to have greater depth to accommodate steam packets that catered for the flourishing mail and ferry traffic. This required significant rock to be blasted from the seabed within the harbour area and further south in what became known as the Quarry Hole at Meetinghouse Point. The castellated powder house structure standing in the Motte was built in 1818 to house the explosives required for the blasting. The final harbour at low tide offered the steam packet fifteen feet of water (4.5 metres).




For decades the ferry service went back and forth across the narrow North Channel to Portpatrick, 19 miles distant on the opposite coast of Scotland. This was a critical factor in the development of the town. Up until the middle of the 19th century, it served as the major point of entry from the United Kingdom’s mainland to the island of Ireland. By then sail was beginning to give way to steam and with the new and more reliable technology the crossing route was revised. Then the least disruptive arrangement, rather than the shortest crossing, became the deciding factor. As such the Irish port was moved to Larne and its corresponding Scottish port moved to Stranraer in 1850. The new ports were accessible to steam-driven boats and much more protected.




Though the hustle and bustle of the Packet Ship might have departed Donaghadee, the town was left with a magnificent harbour, and hotels and boarding houses turned that into an advantage. By this time the town was linked by rail to Belfast which was perfect for day-trippers. As Belfast grew, the increasingly prosperous merchants of the city were attracted to the idea of holidays by the sea. Where better than the short and convenient ride out to Donaghadee with its dry climate and invigorating atmosphere? So as the 19th century progressed into the 20th, Donaghadee was transformed into a Victorian-Edwardian seaside resort of new hotels and fashionable dwellings.




But Donaghadee Harbour managed to retain a measure of its seagoing legacy in the actions of its lifeboat station. Founded in 1910 it became one of the most important and decorated on the Irish coast. Notably in January 1953 the lifeboat 'Sir Samuel Kelly' rescued thirty-two of the forty-four survivors in the Irish Sea from the stricken Larne–Stranraer car ferry, MV Princess Victoria. Later, in 1979 when stationed at Courtmacsherry in County Cork, the same lifeboat was involved in rescuing participants in the Fastnet race. The 'Sir Samuel Kelly' has now been preserved and is on display at Donaghadee, standing near the harbour and her modern-day counterpart.




Donaghadee has changed little in the past century, it calmly retains its charm and character in a fast-changing world. Today it is variously described as the 'Port of Newtownards' and 'The Dover of Ireland' that is fast becoming part of Belfast’s commuter belt. It remains best known today for its two massive stone piers and lighthouse that stand today as relics of the former importance of the harbour. The historic town also speaks of its past with architecture reflecting its phases of development, the occasional medieval and Jacobean remnants with a core of late Georgian buildings, and a predominance of late Victorian and Edwardian buildings.




The town boasts a notable pub, Grace Neill's, that is reputed to be the oldest pub in Ireland. Opened in 1611, as the King’s Arms, and as a result of being the resting place on the coach route between Belfast and Donaghadee, it has been patronised by many famous names. These include the young Peter the Great in 1697 (tsar of Russia), Dick Turpin (highwayman) and a roll call of literary figures, including Swift, Tennyson, Thackeray, Dickens, Trollope and CS Lewis. At some point in the second decade of the 20th century, it was renamed the 'Grace Neill's' after what some say was a lifelong customer and others say was the landlady. Grace, who died at the age of 98 in 1918, is said to still haunt the bar.





The much-loved Donaghadee landmark of the late 12th-century Anglo-Norman Motte can be visited. Known locally as The Moat, the picturesque castellated structure, the Gunpowder Store, was built on top of the Motte c. 1821 to store explosives during the building of the harbour it overlooks. Both are owned by Ards and North Down Borough Council and are protected heritage assets. The Motte and surrounding ground are Scheduled Monument and the Gunpowder Store is a Listed Building that was both restored under the Donaghadee Townscape Heritage Initiative in 2021. The Motte is one of the largest in Ulster and the Gunpowder Store is home to a camera obscura. This is fixed to the lower roof of the building that projects an image from the daylight through a 400mm wide upstand onto a table located inside. Outside the site provides the same wonderful vantage point with views over the town’s picturesque seafront, the Scottish coast to the east on a clear day, and views across Belfast Lough to the north. Just as it did in the 12th century.




From a boating point of view, it is never a perfect berth. But in an auspicious weather window, it is a wonderful town that has plenty of old-world charms to draw in the coastal cruiser. it does however make for an ideal tide wait location for northbound vessels awaiting a favourable tide to pass through Donaghadee Sound.

What facilities are available?

Water, diesel, and electricity are all available at the south pier and some repairs are available locally. Donaghadee is very convenient as shops, pubs and restaurants, that serve the local population in excess of six thousand, are easily reached within a small area local to the harbour. Donaghadee Sailing Club welcomes visitors and is open Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The harbour is about 29 km (18 miles) from Belfast and about 13 km (8 miles) northeast of Newtownards. Belfast bus station offers connections to any location in Ireland. Buses 1 and 2 run from Belfast’s Laganside Bus station to Bangor (one hour, hourly). From Bangor, bus 3 goes to Donaghadee (25 minutes, hourly Monday to Saturday, three Sundays). A regular train service runs from Belfast’s great Victoria St and Central stations to Bangor (30 minutes, every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday, hourly Sunday). Likewise, flights to domestic and international destinations operate from Belfast City and Belfast International Airports.

Any security concerns?

Never an issue known to have occurred at Donaghadee.

With thanks to:

Charlie Kavanagh - ISA/RYA Yachtmaster Instructor/Examiner.