Donaghadee Harbour and our Lighthouse
History of our harbour
1600's
In the early 1600s, Hugh Montgomery received a Royal Warrant to create and build a seaport and harbour at Donaghadee and set up a Mail Packet Service. Montgomery’s Pier was built in 1618 and was repaired over the years. Find out more about Hugh Montgomery here
Read more about John Rennie
(the elder) here.
1818
John Rennie was commissioned by the Government in 1818 to draw up plans for a new harbour but he died two months after works commenced and his son, John (later Sir John Rennie) took over the works with David Logan as resident engineer.
Read more about John Rennie (the younger) here.
1821
In early 1821, preparatory work began for the south pier. A huge cofferdam was constructed enclosing an area of about one acre, within which the pier foundations were laid and thousands of cubic feet of rock removed from the seabed. The interior walls of the piers were dressed in Welsh limestone. The core and outer slopes were formed of greywacke stone, quarried locally at the Quarry Hole at Meeting House Bay.
On 1 August 1821, the 3rd Marquess of Downshire laid the foundation stone of the new harbour and people came from far and wide to celebrate the occasion.
On 24 April 1824 work began on the north pier. A temporary bridge was built from the Parade to the north pier and the railway line from the Quarry Hole crossed the bridge to transport the prepared limestone blocks and other materials.
On 21 May 1825, the sea was readmitted to what was identified as the outer basin. The old crescent pier and temporary bridge remained until the new harbour was completed.
1834
In 1834 the lighthouse was built on the south pier and lit for the first time in November 1836. The tower is built of cut limestone.
The new harbour was built for sailing ships and steam ships were becoming popular. The decline of Donaghadee as a port had begun.
1861
With the coming of the railway in 1861, it was hoped that the mail packet service might once again sail between Donaghadee and Portpatrick, but unfortunately this didn’t happen.
For many years coal boats delivered coal from the Cumbrian coal mines to Donaghadee harbour. A spur went onto the harbour to off-load coal from the coal boats into coal wagons which transported the coal to Newtownards and Comber. Holiday makers could easily visit Donaghadee and ships brought coal into the harbour and the railway track on the harbour carried he coal round to the station.
Tourism
The local fishermen used their boats to take visitors to the Copeland Islands and deep sea fishing in the evenings over the summer
