
The anchorage provides good protection from all winds except for northwesterly or southeasterly conditions. Pilotage up to the anchorage is straightforward via a deep water shipping channel that runs the entire length of the Lough. However, the final approach to Greencastle is not specifically marked and requires careful navigation by daylight. Tides in the anchorage can run up to three and a half knots so newcomers should only approach Greencastle at slack or high water.
Keyfacts for Greencastle
Facilities
Nature
Considerations
Protected sectors
Approaches
Shelter
Last modified
January 9th 2021 Summary* Restrictions apply
A good location with careful navigation required for access.Facilities
Nature
Considerations
Position and approaches
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Haven position
One hundred metres south of the wooden pontoon in the anchorage area.
What is the initial fix?
The following Carlingford Lough Entrance Initial Fix will set up a final approach:

What are the key points of the approach?
Offshore details are available in eastern Ireland’s Coastal Overview for Strangford Lough to Dublin Bay
.
- Use the directions provided for Warrenpoint
for approaches to the lough and its central channel.
- Plan the approach to be at slack water, preferably low water. Tides in the entrance attain rates of up to 5 kn making it virtually impossible for a displacement leisure craft to enter or leave against the tide.
- Carlingford Lough's entrance channel and the dredged channel to Warrenpoint are both narrow channels where sailing vessels of less than 20-metres in length cannot impede ships in transit.
- From the entrance follow the well buoyed and lit commercial channel up the inlet to the No. 9 Starboard Hand Buoy.
- Pass the rear Leading Lt. Beacon tower to starboard. Pass the red perch, that marks the Half Tide Rock, to port.
- Anchor in the channel where the local boat moorings are located.
Not what you need?
Click the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons to progress through neighbouring havens in a coastal 'clockwise' or 'anti-clockwise' sequence. Below are the ten nearest havens to Greencastle for your convenience.
Ten nearest havens by straight line charted distance and bearing:
- Carlingford Harbour - 2.8 nautical miles W
- Carlingford Marina - 3.2 nautical miles WNW
- Killowen - 3.8 nautical miles NW
- Kilkeel Harbour - 4.2 nautical miles ENE
- Rostrevor - 4.6 nautical miles NW
- Greer’s Quay - 5.1 nautical miles WNW
- Giles Quay - 5.8 nautical miles WSW
- Omeath - 6.1 nautical miles WNW
- Warrenpoint - 6.4 nautical miles WNW
- Annalong Harbour - 8.4 nautical miles ENE
These havens are ordered by straight line charted distance and bearing, and can be reordered by compass direction or coastal sequence:
- Carlingford Harbour - 2.8 miles W
- Carlingford Marina - 3.2 miles WNW
- Killowen - 3.8 miles NW
- Kilkeel Harbour - 4.2 miles ENE
- Rostrevor - 4.6 miles NW
- Greer’s Quay - 5.1 miles WNW
- Giles Quay - 5.8 miles WSW
- Omeath - 6.1 miles WNW
- Warrenpoint - 6.4 miles WNW
- Annalong Harbour - 8.4 miles ENE
Chart
What's the story here?

Image: Jay Ken Crozier via CC BY 2.0
Greencastle is a rural townland located inside the north side of the entrance to Carlingford Lough about 1½ miles in from Cranfield Point and 400 metres southeast of Greencastle Point. The small hamlet has a wooden pier and a ferry terminal for a car ferry service that crosses Carlingford Lough between Greencastle and Greenore.

Image: Jay Ken Crozier via CC BY 2.0
It provides the first good anchorage inside Carlingford Lough and it provides good holding in depths of up to 5 metres in the narrow channel between the ledges north of Green Island and Greencastle Point. The approach is made off the main commercial channel entered just over ½ mile to the southeast of Greencastle Point. The short narrow channel is marked by lit perches leading to the ferry terminal.
How to get in?
Follow the marked channel passing close to the No. 9 starboard Hand Buoy and prepare to depart the marked channel here. Turn northward, to starboard, and commence an approach on the anchorage to the east of Green Island.
This path leads past and to starboard of the rear Leading Lt. Beacon tower, that provides the main entrance channel’s 310° T lights-in-line leading lights. Then it passes to the east, to port, of a red perch, that marks the Half Tide Rock. The deep narrow channel that provides the entrance path into the anchorage lies between Half Tide Rock and the mainland shore. It is well marked by five perches, three port perches and two starboard perches, all lit.
The first, Half Tide Rock is an outlier of Green Island, a small islet ½ a mile from the Greencastle shore that is always visible and protects the anchorage to the south. It is surrounded by an extensive rocky foreshore that covers at high water. It has several outlying rocks such as Half Tide Rock to the east that also covers, and a drying sandbank to the north of the island and close south of the mooring area. The red perch marking Half Tide Rock can be challenging to identify as it is thin, and only shows 1 metre at high water springs.
Nevertheless, it is easy enough to identify and especially so at low water when its rock will also be visible. Once this is identified steer for the perch and when it draws close, turn to starboard and pass Half Tide Rock to port keeping at least 15 metres off. All the other perch markers on either side of the channel will be obvious from this point and it is then a matter of passing them on their correct sides.
The car ferry service sails on the hour crosses Carlingford Lough from Greencastle to Greenore and it is important not to obstruct the channel or its approaches when it is manoeuvring. So it is essential to check that the ferry is not underway before entering the channel, and if so, wait until it has cleared the channel.

Image: bishib70 via CC BY NC
With the last perch is astern steer for the wooden pier and follow the line of the moorings to pass the drying bank that lies between Green Island the moorings, close south of the latter. The anchoring area will be readily apparent by local boats, and most likely the lough’s pilot boat and tugs that are usually stationed here.

Image: Jay Ken Crozier via CC BY 2.0

Image: Jay Ken Crozier via CC BY 2.0
There is a small concrete pier around the northern face of Greencastle Point. This dries out entirely at low water along with its approach path. A single starboard perch and two port perches mark the entrance channel to this pier.
Why visit here?
Greencastle derives its name from its signature Norman fortress known by the same name. Recorded as Viride Castrum ‘green castle’ in early Latin documents it is not known why it was so called. Many believe it is an allusion to the verdant appearance of the surrounding countryside. Whatever the case, the castle remains the primary feature of the location and made it a very important place in Norman and medieval times.
When they came to Northern Ireland the Normans only occupied the area of what are now the eastern portions of the modern counties of Antrim and Down. In times of war, the land route from the south through the ‘Gap of the North’ was easily disrupted by the Irish from Mourne which made the lough a hugely significance stretch of water. By constructing Greencastle, and the corresponding Carlingford Castle, the Normans controlled the lough’s narrow entrance and effectively guarded the sea entrance to Ulster. Securing this coastline also performed a key part of a chain of Anglo-Norman fortresses along the eastern coast of Ireland. Greencastle being linked by ferry to Carlingford connected the chain to the centre of Anglo-Norman authority in Dublin. The coastal location of the fort here also provided for vast food resources in the medieval period.
The original fort would have been Anglo-Norman motte-and-bailey with the stone Green Castle itself arriving nearby in the mid 13th-century. This was built by Hugh de Lacy almost certainly during the 1230s and it had a turbulent history from the outset. Owing to the lack of an heir it was transferred to the Crown in 1243. It was taken by the Irish, led by Brian O’ Neill and Hugh O’ Connor in 1260 where the medieval annals record Arx viridis in Ultonia prosternitor ‘the green fortress in Ulster thrown to the ground’.

By Tudor times the castle had survived three centuries of attack, counterattack, occupation and by the time of the downfall of the Earls of Kildare in 1534, it was in what was described as a "wretched condition". In the 15th century, the royal garrison was reduced in number but the castle had a further level added to the tower with mural passages, wall walks, and the ground floor sub-divided into three barrel-vaulted chambers to make it more defensible. In 1505 it was granted to the Earls of Kildare who made further alterations including the enlargement of the upper windows. In 1549 it was granted as part of the lordships of Newry and Mourne to Sir Nicholas Bagnall, Knight Marshall of Ireland. During their tenure in 1597, the castle was listed as one of the few garrisons retained for Elizabeth I in Ulster. The Bagnalls were resident in the castle until 1635. After 400 years, Greencastle finally ceased functioning as a fortification when in 1652 the castle was bombarded by parliamentary forces during the decade of wars in Ireland that followed the 1641 Rebellion. By the time the Earls of Kilmorey became principal landowners in Mourne, Greencastle was uninhabitable.

Today the castle with its small quay and fishing village, situated further west along the shore, is very quiet. It adds much to its appeal offering stunning views of the lough. At the entrance to the lough, it includes the famous 41-metre high Haulbowline Lighthouse, erected in 1823, and the Block House Island where the ruins are still visible of its Elizabethan fort built in 1602. The towering Mourne Mountains that bound the area to the north are simply beautiful.

The dismantled and dilapidated fortress, with its air of sombre antiquity, carries the meditative mind to memories of the past. The castle came into State Care in the 1960s and for some generations in the possession of the McElroy family. Their farm and domestic buildings occupy much of the area around the western side of the castle. Close to the castle is the late medieval church associated with the fortification and its Anglo-Norman motte-and-bailey that was Greencastle’s precursor. The site of the medieval village of Greencastle that must presumably lie in the environs of the castle has not yet been found. Within the hamlet are the former Lighthouse Keepers’ dwellings built over 150 years ago and which are now listed, a boat-house and walls dating to a similar period and the old wooden pier which dates back to the 1880s are also listed.
From a purely boating perspective, Greencastle is the first anchorage of the beautiful sailing area that is Carlingford Lough. The commercial harbour of Greenore, that lies opposite, cannot accommodate leisure craft. Hence it is an important berth for those entering or exiting the lough. The ancient castle is the main feature of this remote out of the way location. Apart from the castle and an old church, there is now little else. Surrounding it there is an occasional fisherman’s house and a holiday home, but it can hardly even be called a scattered hamlet.
What facilities are available?
There are no shops or facilities of any kind in Greencastle apart for the dedicated area for vehicles to wait to embark, toilets and waiting area for foot passengers. Kilkeel is the largest and nearest town to Greencastle and is just under 5 miles from the Carlingford Lough Terminal.Taxi services are available in the area:
Joe’s Taxis
Premier Cabs
Any security concerns?
Never an issue known to have occurred at Greencastle.With thanks to:
Thomas Cunningham - Harbour Master for ‘Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission’.









Greencastle and Greenore ferry service
An informative Northern Ireland tourist board overview
Aerial footage of Greencastle and surroundings
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