Water Bodies

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 353.

Relief

The shoreline of Northern Ireland is characterized by numerous irregularities. The most spectacular feature of the northern coast is the Giant's Causeway, a volcanic rock formation consisting of thousands of closely placed, many-sided pillars of black basalt.

The country consists mainly of a low, flat plain, at the approximate centre of which lies Lough Neagh (381 sq km), the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles.

There are three main upland areas in Northern Ireland which form a kind of a distant ring around this lake. They are: the Sperrin Mountains in the north-west and the Antrim Mountains along the north-eastern coast, which are extensions of the Scottish Highlands; and the Mourne Mountains in the south-east. The highest point in the country is Slieve Donard (852 m), a peak in the Mourne Mountains.

It has already been mentioned that the chief lake is Lough Neagh. With an area of about 381 sq km Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles.

The chief rivers of Northern Ireland are the Foyle, which forms part of the western boundary with County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland and flows into Lough Foyle at Londonderry (Derry), and the Upper Bann and Lower Bann rivers. The former rises in the Mourne Mountains and empties into Lough Neagh; the latter flows out of Lough Neagh to the North Channel. Among the many other rivers are the Main, the Blackwater, the Lagan, the Erne, and the Bush.

The main cities of this part of the UK are Londonderry, Belfast, Coleraine, Omagh, Newry.