17/11/2025
An interesting read. 'How New Lake was formed'...
How 'New Lake' was formed
The history of sand movement around Dunfanaghy has shaped the local landscape dramatically for hundreds of years. Not only did the movement of sand make Horn Head no longer an island but it also created a new lake in Dunfanaghy.
However, these events were not simultaneous. Old maps show us that Horn Head stopped being an island about 400 years ago. Around the 1620s/30s, a 2km tombolo formed between Horn Head and Murroe to create Tramore, meaning ‘Big Strand’.
When this occurred, the distinct island formerly recorded as ‘Rams Head’ became a headland and thus its point became known by several names, including ‘North Cape’, ‘Cape Horn’ and ‘Horn Head’.
Horn Head could now be accessed via Tramore Strand. A path ran along the inside of the strand, beginning near Corcreggan Mill and ending at a small bridge where a bridge still stands before entering the forest on the other side of the strand.
Tramore Strand was primarily owned by the Anglican church in the 17th century and hence the townland in the centre of the strand is called ‘Corgannive Glebe’ (Sandy Hillock Churchland). The sand dunes that were forming during this period of the Ulster Plantation, harvested marram grass which could be used for thatching roofs, making mats, ropes and fishing nets, and thus a source of income for the new church authorities.
From this new strand, a lake would eventually form behind it. But it did so in stages over 300 years. In general terms, first, the open sea became a bay, then an estuary and finally a lake.
The bay that was formed on the east of the strand was initially known locally as ‘Runclevin Bay’ after Rinclevan townland (east side of New Lake where the boat dock is). This bay had a narrow inlet where Hornhead bridge was later built. All around the bay were extensive rabbit warrens; their meat and fur being another source of income for the landlord.
The bay gradually silted up to form 'Rinclevan Strand' and by the mid-18th century, this bay was more of an estuary with its fresh water supply chiefly from Port Lough, 1km south. This stream from Port Lough powered Corcreggan Corn Mill, before entering the southwest side of the bay beside where a ‘white castle’ in Castlebane is believed to have sat on the shoreline at a time when the open sea sat right in front of Castlebane.
At low tide, the freshwater from Port Lough created a visible stream through the estuary bed and out into Dunfanaghy Bay. At high tide, an embankment stopped the sea water running east. Today this looks like an old road once ran through the lake.
By the late 18th century, Dunfanaghy Bay also began silting up heavily from its sides but the anchorage at the shoreline below Mr Stewart’s Horn Head House was still usable in 1800. Even into the 1830s, a harbour at Dunfanaghy was still considered accessible to be built for ships. But like Runclevin Bay a century prior, by the mid-19th century, navigation of Dunfanaghy Bay becaming increasingly dependent on tides too, and boats increasingly ran aground attempting to come up the estuary into Dunfanaghy Harbour.
Into the 20th century, many will have heard about the storm of 1917 which caused New Lake to form. While this is true, this wasn’t a sudden event. Rather, this former bay was gradually silting up for hundreds of years, as had already occurred on the western side of the bay with Tramore Strand. However, manmade circumstances during the First World War did exacerbate this when marram grass was cut by the Stewart landlord to send to the battlefields for horse bedding. Multiple gales caused dry sand from Tramore to shift eastwards and eventually the old sound was cut off from the sea, causing a new lake to form. By the mid-1920s, Hornhead Bridge was buried in sand and Horn Head House itself was considered 'doomed' in 1931.
Modern methods now better control this shifting sand but it will always do its own thing. It is highly likely that tombolos have come and gone from Horn Head and the mainland over the millennia, meaning Horn Head has been an island at multiple points in history. Arguably, it remains an island or what is better known as a tied-island.
Today, New Lake is a 230-acre freshwater lake recognised as one of the premier brown trout fisheries in County Donegal.
