placenamesGawley's Gate
Geata Mhic Amhlaí
Gawley's Gate's quay links community development, the management of Lough Neagh's water level and a continuing tradition of fishing along the Antrim shore.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Geata Mhic Amhlaí · Irish · main form · validated name
- Gawley's Gate · English · main form
Place & story
A community quay project
In an Assembly debate on 21 October 2008, Dolores Kelly described herself as a founding member of the Gawley's Gate Quay Company. She explained that LEADER+ and Lough Neagh Partnership funding had helped provide a quay behind a restaurant. Her account places the project within local efforts to improve access to the lough and encourage investment. It documents the funding partnership without establishing a precise opening date for the quay. [2]
Water levels and dredging
A Department for Infrastructure letter of September 2020 explains that work at Gawley's Gate quay arose from responsibilities following the 1955 Lough Neagh levels scheme. Lower water levels had made access difficult for fishing boats at quays around the shore. The department distinguished quays covered by maintenance agreements from those outside them and identified Gawley's Gate as receiving work under that arrangement. The letter connects later dredging with a much earlier alteration of the lough. [3]
Longline eel fishing near the Gate
The Lough Neagh fishermen's co-operative's 2018 preview of a Joe Mahon television programme describes a visit to the McNally family's harbour near Gawley's Gate. Gerry McNally and his son Daniel practised longline eel fishing, with a family association extending across several generations. Preparing and attaching the fishing lines required considerable work ashore before a day's fishing. The account records that practical family involvement in the fishery, rather than treating the harbour solely as a leisure facility. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Massereene Upper
- Civil parish
- Aghagallon
- Within
- Montiaghs
- Coordinates
- 54.53953, -6.31571 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 135776 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Gawley's Gate. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Northern Ireland Assembly Official Report21October2008, p211 · Northern Ireland Assembly; Dolores Kelly
- DfI Rivers letter8September2020, released under information request2022-0304 · Department for Infrastructure, Rivers
- Lough Neagh by Joe Mahon: final episode preview15November2018 · Lough Neagh Fishermen’s Co-operative Society
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.