River Moyola

Castledawson Bridge over the Moyola

The River Moyola or Moyola River stretches for approximately 27 miles from the Sperrin Mountains to Lough Neagh. The Moyola starts a small river (10-15ft) for the first few miles of its length and proceeds to expand to a medium sized river (15-65ft) and then to a large river (65ft+) for its last couple of miles before Lough Neagh.

According to Deirdre and Laurence Flanagan in their book, Irish Place Names, the River Moyola dervies its name from Magh nÉola, meaning Éolas Plain.

Hydrology

The flow or discharge of the river is measured near to its mouth in Lough Neagh. The catchment area to the gauging station is 117½ square miles, which yields an average flow of 1,850 gallons a second. The maximum recorded flow between 1971 and 2012 was 34,300 gallons a second on 19 January 1988.

The catchment has a varied geology including limestone, schist, shale and basalt with outcrops of chalk. Overlying this solid geology are superficial deposits of glacial till, plus sand and aggregates. Land use is primarily grassland, with areas of bog and heathland, but includes the towns of Magherafelt and Maghera. The average annual rainfall in the catchment is 48 inches, which is somewhat higher than the average for United Kingdom at 43 inches.

Mentions in literature

The river is mentioned in frequently in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, such as Gifts of Rain and A New Song, Whitby-sur-Moyola and Moyulla. Critic Daniel Tobin suggests that for Heaney his "childhood river, Moyola, is not unlike Wordsworth's Derwent."