“Moorlough Memories”

Moorlough is a small freshwater lake nestled high in the Sperrin hills and surrounded by pretty much nothing more than peat bogland and heather. No shops, ice cream vans nor hotels are found here. Although for it being in such a rural location, Moorlough still draws the locals to its shores just as it has done so for centuries. It’s the sheer isolation of Moorlough in which I believe people find most attractive.

Some of you my relate to what I’m now about to tell you about this lake, especially if you grew up in Ireland. Our local lakes where also known as “The Beach” to all children . As a child this lake was my alternative beach! When the sun shined and I pleaded with my parents “I wanna go to the beach” their immediate response was to drive me and my sisters the entire 8 mile journey to Moorlough . It has a small area on its shore where the local council has added a few loads of sand known as ‘The paddling pool’. This was the “beach” for all locals when they were children and it’s still “The local beach” for their own children & grandchildren even to this day.

I remember us all wearing swimsuits with buckets/spades and our wee hearts jumping with delight each time we topped the hill and laid eyes on this lake. Surrounded by brown heather, brown trees and seeing the sun reflect of its peat-stained brown waters

Not quite the Atlantic blue we nowadays dream off but we had the greatest days of our childhood there on our wee beach, as many other families still do today. When something works…. why change it?