Castle Espie is a wetland reserve managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) on the banks of Strangford Lough, three miles south of Comber, County Down, Northern Ireland, in the townland of the same name. It is part of the Strangford Lough Ramsar Site. It provides an early wintering site for almost the entire Nearctic population of pale-bellied brent geese.
Features
It has the largest collection of ducks, geese and swans in
Ireland. In addition to the reserve, the site contains The Kingfisher Kitchen, gift and book shop, The Graffan Gallery, exhibition areas,
Bird hide, woodland walks, sensory garden, events and activities, free parking, a picnic area
and a reconstruction of a
Crannog, an ancient type of dwelling found in Scotland and Ireland from the European Neolithic Period to the early 18th century.
The Visitor Centre features award-winning sustainable design including rain water harvesting, natural reed bed filtration systems for waste water, solar power and provides sweeping vistas of the northern shore of Strangford lough from the Kingfisher kitchen.
History
There is archaeological evidence from the
Mesolithic period at the site.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, lime was quarried at the site, and processed in .
The site has been managed by WWT since 1990.
Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch
In 2021 Castle Espie was used as a filming location for the BBC wildlife series
Springwatch and
Autumnwatch presented by
Gillian Burke and in January 2022
Springwatch presented by
Megan McCubbin
Townland
Castle Espie ()
is also a
townland of 255 acres in the civil parish of
Tullynakill and the historic barony of Castlereagh Lower.
External links
