Bathing waters in Northern Ireland

One of our responsibilities is to ensure our coastal waters are of high enough quality for the general public to bathe in. Water Quality Inspectors collect the water samples on our behalf. The samples are then analysed by the Water Management Unit based in Lisburn.

The bathing season runs from June through to mid-September during which water quality will be assessed on 20 different occasions. Bathing Water Quality information is updated weekly during the bathing season and displayed in the format of colour-coded posters. These posters are displayed on this page. These posters are circulated to all beach operators for public display.

The 2011 Bathing Water Quality posters can be viewed below

• 2011 Northern Ireland (North Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 67Kb)
• 2011 Northern Ireland (Antrim Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 46Kb)
• 2011 Northern Ireland (North Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 48Kb)
• 2011 Northern Ireland (South Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 49Kb)

The 2010 Bathing Water Quality posters can be viewed below:

• 2010 Northern Ireland (North Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 85Kb)
• 2010 Northern Ireland (Antrim Coast) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 74Kb)
• 2010 Northern Ireland (North Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 78Kb)
• 2010 Northern Ireland (South Down) Bathing Water Quality Poster (.PDF 75Kb)

2011 EC Bathing Water Directive Compliance for Northern Ireland

A summary of the 2011 EC Bathing Water Directive compliance is provided in the table below. The data supporting this assessment is being prepared for web publication and will be available in the near future. Equivalent 2010 data is available at Bathing Water Quality Data page.

Summary

All 24 (100% compliance) of Northern Ireland's identified bathing waters achieved the mandatory water quality standards of the EC Bathing Water Directive ie passed the Directive achieving Good water quality.

20 out of 24 (83% compliance) achieved the tighter guideline requirements of the Directive ie passed the Directive achieving Excellent water quality.

Table of Northern Ireland Bathing Water Directive Compliance

Identified Bathing Water	2011 EC Bathing Water Directive Compliance	2010 EC Bathing Water Directive Compliance
Magilligan (Benone)	Excellent	Excellent
Magilligan (Downhill)	Excellent	Excellent
Castlerock	Excellent	Good
Portstewart	Excellent	Excellent
Portrush (Mill) West	Excellent	Excellent
Portrush (Curran) East	Excellent	Excellent
Portrush (Whiterocks)	Excellent	Excellent
Portballintrae (Salmon Rock)	Excellent	Excellent
Ballycastle	Excellent	Excellent
Waterfoot	Excellent	Excellent
Carnlough	Excellent	Excellent
Ballygalley	Good	Excellent
Brown's Bay	Good	Good
Helen's Bay	Excellent	Excellent
Crawfordsburn	Excellent	Good
Ballyholme	Good	Poor
Groomsport	Excellent	Good
Millisle	Excellent	Good
Ballywalter	Excellent	Excellent
Tyrella	Excellent	Excellent
Murlough Co. Down	Excellent	Excellent
Newcastle Co. Down	Good	Poor
Cranfield (Nicholson's Strand)	Excellent	Excellent
Cranfield	Excellent	Good