Skip to content
FishingHQSearch

Ballyhornan and Guns Island

Beach · Salt water · in The Lecale coast and Dundrum Bay

A kilometre of mixed sand and shingle on the Lecale coast backed by low cliffs and grassy dune, with Guns Island lying a couple of hundred metres offshore and shallow water between the two. Clean beach ground below the car park; the sharp slate-like rock of Killard Point closes the bay to the north and is treacherous underfoot.

Safety: tides and being cut off — can cause serious injury or death. 3 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at Ballyhornan and Guns Island itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.

Also documented at neighbouring places

One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.

From the shore

Spearfishing

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

  • Ledgering

    Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.

The ground and the water

The ground
A kilometre of mixed sand and shingle on the Lecale coast backed by low cliffs and grassy dune, with Guns Island lying a couple of hundred metres offshore and shallow water between the two. Clean beach ground below the car park; the sharp slate-like rock of Killard Point closes the bay to the north and is treacherous underfoot.
Exposure
Open east into the Irish Sea with the Isle of Man visible on the horizon, and no shelter from that quarter.
Depth
Shallow between the beach and the island; the ground deepens off Killard Point to the north.
Tide and flow
Guns Island can be reached by wading at the bottom of the largest tides, which is the tidal fact that matters here and the one that gets people cut off.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-26. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
A quiet kilometre of sand and shingle on the Lecale coast, reached by the coast road from Ardglass or Strangford, with a small car park close to the shore and the fished beach directly below it. The council describes facilities here as limited, and that is the honest summary: this is a beach with somewhere to leave a car and very little else.
The walk in
Effectively none to the beach itself, which is why a federation can run a five-hour night match here in November. Getting to the rock at Killard Point at the northern end is a different matter: sharp slate-like formations that one angler describes as costing six traces and eight leads in an afternoon, with wellingtons named as the wrong footwear.
Tidal access
Guns Island lies a couple of hundred metres off the beach and can be waded at the bottom of the largest tides. That is the cut-off risk here, and it is the reason the council's own suggestion for reaching the island is a kayak rather than a walk.

Parking

  • Ballyhornan beach parking

    Informal parking area · Charging not established

    A first-hand session account describes fishing the clean beach ground directly below the car park. It is a small area by the shore rather than a named public car park, and no charging arrangement is established by either source read for this record.

Where this access information comes from
  • Ballyhornan Beach — Newry, Mourne and Down District Council tourism service — Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The council's own statement that facilities here are limited, that Guns Island lies in the bay, and that the beach forms part of the South East Coast Canoe Trail.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Killard Point and Ballyhornan, 3 April 2009 — a blank session — Sea Angling Ireland forum (Practitioner report)Relied on for: A first-hand account of the ground: clean beach below the car park, and sharp slate-like rock at Killard Point that cost the angler six traces, several hooks and eight leads.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Through the year

The national federation fishes a five-hour shore-league match here in the middle of November, starting at six in the evening — a governing body scheduling a night match on this beach in late autumn. No source found names a species caught here.

Safety

Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death

The flood fills the ground behind an angler before it covers the ground in front, so the water arrives between them and the shore while the position they are standing on is still dry.

What reduces it: Read the tide table before going rather than after arriving, set a leaving time from the tide rather than from the fishing, and identify the exit and how long it takes while the ground is still uncovered.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

UK coastal and inland water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

This shore faces east and south-east into the Irish Sea with several hundred kilometres of open water in front of it, so an onshore blow builds a genuine sea against rock and shingle with no shelter behind it. Waves break well up the shore on a rising tide and take people off low rock.

What reduces it: Read the fetch rather than the wind speed: a moderate easterly here does what a strong westerly does not. Fish rising tides from ground you can leave upward, and treat any mark that requires crossing low rock as closed once a sea is running.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause injury needing treatment

The rock at Killard Point at the north end of the bay is described first-hand as slate-like, sharp and treacherous, and as sharp enough to strip six traces and eight leads from one angler moving between formations in an afternoon. Wellingtons are named as the wrong footwear for it.

What reduces it: Wear boots with a sole that grips wet rock and protects the ankle, move between formations deliberately rather than by jumping, and treat the tackle the ground takes as a measure of what it would do to a hand or a shin.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Who holds the answer:

  • The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, for sea fisheries and marine conservation in Northern Ireland.
  • The harbour authority or council, for access to the structure or the shore.
  • The Northern Ireland department responsible for agriculture, environment and rural affairs, which administers sea fisheries measures and marine conservation here.
  • The Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the site management bodies, where a coastal or marine designation affects access or activity.
  • The harbour authority at each port, for access to and fishing from harbour structures. Several of these are working fishing ports rather than public quays.
  • The landowner, where access to the shore crosses land in private or National Trust ownership.

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

Ballyhornan and Guns IslandArdglassThe Strangford narrowsSt John's PointThe QuoilePortavogieDundrum Bay and NewcastleBallywalterBallyhalbert
Ballyhornan and Guns Island and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

  • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Description, designation and habitat characterisation of the named coastal and marine features of the United Kingdom, and the species characteristically associated with them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Marine environmental science for UK shelf seas: sediment characterisation, estuarine process, shellfish bed distribution, tidal range and the monitoring that describes them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • NIFSA competition venues, dates and species leagues — Northern Ireland Federation of Sea Anglers (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: The national federation scheduling a shore-league match at this venue on a named date and at a named time of day.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Killard Point and Ballyhornan, 3 April 2009 — a blank session — Sea Angling Ireland forum (Practitioner report)Relied on for: A dated first-hand session describing the ground, the tackle cost of it and the outcome, which was a blank.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Ballyhornan Beach — Newry, Mourne and Down District Council tourism service — Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The council describing its own beach and the limitation on its facilities.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

Share this page