kids encyclopedia robot

List of loughs of Ireland facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Ireland is an island full of beautiful lakes! In Ireland, we call these lakes "loughs" (pronounced like "lock" or "loch"). The word "lough" comes from the old Irish word loch, which means lake.

Did you know there are about 12,000 loughs in the Republic of Ireland alone? They cover a huge area, more than 1,200 square kilometers! The biggest lough in all of Ireland is Lough Neagh. It's so big it's in Northern Ireland! The second largest is Lough Corrib, which is the biggest one in the Republic of Ireland.

This article will tell you about some of the most important loughs in Ireland. We'll look at their size, where they are, and what makes them special. Some loughs are partly or completely in Northern Ireland; these are marked with an asterisk (*).

Ireland's Biggest Lakes

Here are the largest freshwater loughs in Ireland, ranked by how much area they cover:

Rank Lake Area (km2) Mean Depth (m) Max Depth (m) Volume (million m3) Shoreline (km) County/Counties
1 Lough Neagh* 396 9.0 25 3,528 186 Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, County Londonderry
2 Lough Corrib 176 6.5 50.9 1,158 392 Galway and Mayo
3 Lough Derg (Shannon) 130 7.6 36 988 229 Tipperary, Clare and Galway
4 Lower Lough Erne* 109 11.9 69 1,300 270 Fermanagh
5 Lough Ree 105 6.2 35 651 192 Roscommon, Longford and Westmeath
6 Lough Mask 83 15.0 58 1,300 192 Mayo and Galway
7 Lough Conn 50 7.0 34 350 108 Mayo
8 Lough Allen 35 10.9 42.7 391 53 Leitrim and Roscommon
9 Upper Lough Erne* 34 2.3 27 79 255 Fermanagh
10 Lough Melvin* 23 7.8 44 175 54 Fermanagh and Leitrim
11 Lough Leane 20 13.4 60 269 51 Kerry
12 Poulaphouca Reservoir 20 6.8 135 64 Wicklow
13 Lough Sheelin 19 4.4 15 83.6 36 Westmeath, Cavan, Meath
14 Lough Carra 16 1.8 18 28.8 75 County Mayo

The deepest lake in Ireland is Muckross Lake, which is part of the Lakes of Killarney. It goes down 75 meters!

Different Types of Loughs

Freshwater Loughs

Most loughs in Ireland are freshwater, meaning they contain water that isn't salty. Here are some notable freshwater loughs and where you can find them:

Brackish Loughs

A brackish lough has water that is a mix of fresh and salty water. It's not as salty as the sea, but not as fresh as a river!

Turloughs

Turloughs are special lakes that appear and disappear with the seasons. They fill up with water in winter and then dry out in summer.

Reservoirs

Reservoirs are artificial lakes, meaning they are man-made. They are built to store water, often for drinking or to generate electricity.

Sea Loughs

Sea loughs are actually parts of the sea that reach inland, like long, narrow bays. They are filled with saltwater.

Fjords

Some sea loughs are also called fjords. These are long, narrow inlets of the sea, with steep cliffs or slopes on either side. They were formed by glaciers a very long time ago!

Images for kids

See also

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
List of loughs of Ireland Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.