The Barmouth is where the River Bann enters the cold sea of the Atlantic. The moles protecting the entrance where built in the 1888 and repaired and improved in 1930s. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record of Coleraine Port that; “great difficulty is offered for its approach by a bar at the mouth of the river. This bar is of shifting sand and almost always slightly changes after severe storms”. For this reason the Bann pilots were required to ‘sound the bar’ (measure the depth of water at the entrance) during the summer months, when the pilotmaster deemed it necessary. Few boats crossed the bar at that time between October and May. In the 1830s trade was diminishing with few ships of over 100 tons register entering the port.
Due to the shifting sand bar along this stretch, trade into Coleraine was affected, and thus in 1878, commisioners seeked helped from one Sir John Coode (recognised as the preeminent Victorian harbour engineer) on how the mouth of the river may be improved. This report envisaged two retaining walls that would narrow the channel and thus scour the riverbed.
To aid with the endevour, rock was sourced on the east bank of the river at Carnanee Quarry and brought to the barmouth by tramway. A temporary wooden bridge was built to bring rock to the Castlerock side. A short section of the bridge can still be seen on the Castlerock bank.
References:
Robert Anderson Memorial Talk for Coleraine Historical Society, "The Story of the Barmouth Moles", 15 November 2022, Geoff Warke, Coleraine Historical Society.
Binevenagh & Causeway Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Maritime Heritage Guide. https://ccght.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Maritime-Web-file.pdf
About the Cache: Micro magnetic cache. Hopefully blends into surrondings. Exercise caution when retreiving/replacing cache. Not suitiable in stormy/high swell weather. Cache is retrivable from pier walkway, no requirment for climbing/navigating rocks. Bring your own pen.
Please take care when approaching cache location and when retrieving/replacing.