Lough Swilly including Blanket Nook and Inch Lake (547)
Ireland, Europe
Site overview
KBA status: confirmed
Global KBA criteria: D1a
Year of last assessment: 2009
National site name: Lough Swilly including Blanket Nook and Inch Lake
Central coordinates: Latitude: 55.1167, Longitude: -7.5333
System: marine, terrestrial
Elevation (m): 0 to 5
Area of KBA (km2): 94.80973
Protected area coverage (%): 92.94
KBA classification: Global
Legacy site: Yes
Site details
Site description: This site encompasses a large part of Lough Swilly between Letterkenny and Buncrana, in County Donegal. It is a long, narrow sea inlet with extensive banks of mud and shingle between Letterkenny and Inch, including Inch Island. There is some empoldered land at Big Isle and Blanket Nook and an embanked sea channel between Inch Island and the mainland. The boundaries of the IBA have been redrawn to cover a smaller area compared to that in the previous European inventory (Grimmett and Jones 1989).
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance that meets the thresholds for at least one criterion described in the Global Standard for the Identification of KBAs.
Additional biodiversity: This is a key wetland for birds in Ireland, important for the richness and abundance of its wintering and breeding species. Wintering waterbirds regularly occur in total numbers of international importance (22,750-26,600 birds in 1995 and 1996). Up to 14 other wintering species also occur in numbers of national importance, including Tadorna tadorna (793 birds, 1996), Anas penelope (1,861 birds, 1995), Anas crecca (1,669 birds, 1996) and Charadrius hiaticula (167 birds, 1996).
Habitats
Land use: agriculture (20%) | fisheries/aquaculture (80%) | hunting (95%)
| IUCN Habitat | Coverage % | Habitat detail |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Neritic | 40 | |
| Marine Intertidal | 40 | |
| Grassland | 10 | |
| Artificial - Terrestrial | 10 |
Threats
Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Parts of the site are threatened by nutrient pollution due to agricultural run-off. Changes in agricultural practice could threaten the feeding fields of swans Cygnus and geese Anser at Inch Lough and Blanket Nook. Use of the site for water-sports and aquaculture (intertidal and subtidal shellfish cultivation) is increasing and may threaten habitat quality. In 1998 land-claim, apparently unauthorized, for the construction of a marina at Fahan on the site's east shore, damaged intertidal sandflat. Inch Island, where Sterna sandvicensis breeds, lies within the Lough Swilly SPA.