Lough Derg, is a freshwater lake in the Shannon River basin in Ireland. Is the third largest lake on the island of Ireland (after Lough Neagh and Lough Corrib).
It is a long, narrow lake with shores in counties Clare (south-west), Galway (north-west) and Tipperary (east). It is the southernmost of the three great lakes on the River Shannon. Towns and villages on Lough Derg include Portumna, Killaloe & Ballina, Dromineer, Terryglass, Mountshannon and Garrykennedy.
The name of the loch is derived from the Irish Loch Deirgdheirc. This was one of the names of the Irish god Dagda and literally means „red eye“.
Geography
At its deepest point, the loch is 36 metres deep and covers an area of 130 square kilometres. Not far downstream from where Lough Derg joins the Shannon is Doonass Falls, the largest waterfall on the sloping river. Nearby is the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric power station, which was the largest in the world when it was built in 1927.
Uses
In the nineteenth century, Lough Derg was an important transport artery from the port of Limerick to Dublin via the canals of central Ireland. Today, Lough Derg is navigable for its entire 40 km length and is popular for cruise ships and other recreational craft, as well as for sailing and fishing. The University of Limerick has an activity centre on the lake north of Killaloe, where canoes, kayaks, windsurfing, dinghy sailing and other recreational facilities are available.
Dromineer, Ireland’s first inland station, is home to an RNLI lifeboat. June 2013, 35 people managed to get to safety here when a large-scale rescue operation took place after an international rowing race was affected by bad weather.
In 2011, Dublin City Council published a plan to build a water pipeline to supply 350 million litres of water from Lough Derg to the region. In 2016, the Parteen Basin in the south of Lough was selected as the proposed abstraction site. The water would be pumped to a pressure relief tank at Knockanacree and from there gravity fed to Dublin.
