Benone Beach Londonderry
Benone Beach, sometimes referred to as Magilligan Strand, stretches for over seven miles along the north Londonderry coast between the mouth of the River Bann at Castlerock and the Magilligan Point at the narrow entrance to Lough Foyle, forming one of the longest and widest stretches of continuous beach in Ireland. The beach faces north into the Atlantic approaches and is backed by an extensive dune system that provides habitat of considerable ecological value and a landscape buffer between the beach and the agricultural land and small settlements behind.
The beach's scale gives it a quality of solitude unusual on the northern Irish coast even at busy times of year. At low water the strand can extend to considerable width, the tide retreating to expose a vast flat expanse of pale sand that reflects the sky and makes the beach feel even larger than its already impressive dimensions suggest. The water quality at Benone consistently achieves Blue Flag standard, a reflection of the relatively undeveloped nature of the catchment and the lack of significant industrial or urban pollution inputs to this section of the north coast.
The Binevenagh escarpment rises steeply above the southern edge of the dune system, its basalt cliffs and moorland plateau providing a dramatic backdrop to the coastal plain and offering walking with panoramic views over the Foyle and toward the hills of Donegal across the lough. The escarpment's exposed south-facing slopes are an important location for peregrine falcons, one of the strongholds of the species in Northern Ireland.
Magilligan Point at the western end of the beach commands the narrow entrance to Lough Foyle and is the site of a Martello tower and military installations reflecting the strategic importance of this bottleneck between the Atlantic and the inner lough. The ferry between Magilligan and Greencastle in County Donegal provides a short crossing to the Republic.