Carrickhugh Harbour, Carrickhugh, Ballykelly, Limavady, Co Londonderry

Carrickhugh Harbour is a small, manmade harbour located immediately southwest of the Carrickhugh Railway Bridge, near Ballykelly, Limavady, County Londonderry. Historically significant and of interest as a piece of industrial archaeology, it is still maintained. The harbour’s appearance has been somewhat altered by maintenance, although the construction of the retaining wall may be notable.

The harbour is a widened section of the Carrickhugh River, indicated as a 'Boat Harbour' on the 1848 Ordnance Survey Map. The 1923 Ordnance Survey Map depicts the harbour angled to the river. The banks are steep, rising approximately four metres above water level, and are formed from dredged clay and material. A retaining wall at water level consists of timber posts and joists. A block wall under the path connecting Carrickhugh Station (HB02/02/008) to the Carrickhugh Mills (HB02/02/005 & 006) closes off the inlet at its southwestern end. A slipway at the junction of the harbour and river is currently used as a base for a floating bulldozer machine, which maintains the embankments north of the railway bridge. Formerly, the harbour served as a base for boats collecting shells and seaweed for fertilizer production, a detail reflected in the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs’ tables of local economies, which recorded distances to resources like lime and shells; for example, the Memoirs record that for Tullymain, shells were located three-quarters of a mile away.