Description
Moorlough, Donemana, Strabane, County Tyrone
Moorlough is a small freshwater lake, nestled high in the hills & is surrounded by pretty much nothing more than peat bog lands & heather. No shops, Ice cream vans nor hotels are found here but 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.
I’m sure you may also relate to what I now about to tell you about this small local lake, especially if you grew up in Ireland, because 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 & I cried to my parents “I wanna go to the beach” their immediate response was to drive me & my sisters the entire 8 miles 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 & it’s still “The local beach” for their own children grandchildren to this day.
I remember us all wearing swimsuits with buckets/spades & our wee hearts jumping with delight each time we topped the hill & laid eyes on this lake. Surrounded by brown heather, brown trees & 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 on our wee beach here & i’m im sure many others still do. When something works, why change it? ?
