Open Country - Lough Neagh

Helen Mark is in Northern Ireland where she takes to the waters of Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the UK, measuring over 20 miles long, nine miles wide and containing over 800 billion gallons of water! Six major rivers flow into the Lough and only one, the River Bann, flows out. Five of the six counties which make up Northern Ireland have shores on the Lough which is also a source of fresh water to many people. Eel fishing on the lough has played a huge part in the lives of local people for centuries whilst the lake is also at the forefront of the sand extraction industry. Yet although the lough has been described as extremely enigmatic, it has remained very much a place of extraction with very little put back in to it over the years. Seven years ago, a group of local people came together to do something about this and recently their hard work was rewarded when the Lough Neagh Partnership received an award for Outstanding Achievement. Helen hears from some of the people involved and starts her journey by boarding the Island Warrior from Sandy Bay to Rams Island, formerly a rat-infested strip of land on the lough and now a haven for wildlife and a popular tourist spot. She hears from Gerry Darby about why the Lough Neagh Partnership was formed and also from Island Warrior skipper and volunteer, Michael Savage, about the labour of love carried out to transform Rams Island. Helen then continues her journey around the shore hearing from heritage officer and archaeologist, Moira O'Rourke about some of the stories she has unearthed in her shoreline walks and from Kieran Breen of the Lough Neagh Heritage Boating Association about his passion for keeping alive the age-old spirit of the Lough Neagh by building some of the old traditional working boats used on the lough. Helen rounds off her day along the shores with a visit to Coney Island, the only inhabited island on the lough, where she hears from the island's only inhabitant about the changes he has seen during his 12 years on Coney. Producer: Helen Chetwynd.