North Derry beaches of Benone, Downhill, Castlerock and Portstewart awarded ‘Excellent’ Blue Flag status

All 26 identified bathing waters in the North have met the required standards for water quality when measured against the standards for faecal indicator organisms.

The four north Derry beaches were among 22 across the North given the highest rating possible.

The ‘Excellent’ rating is a prerequisite for the coveted Blue Flag Award and the highest water quality standard.

The 2024 bathing water results were announced by the environment minister Andrew Muir.

Minister Muir said: “Even with the wet summer and poor weather it is very encouraging to see so many of Northern Ireland’s bathing waters maintaining high standards for water quality.

"The addition of another year’s data has improved the classifications at some of the candidate sites. However, a full set of four years is required to classify these with confidence.

"Unfortunately, as with 2023, this season was also dominated by coverage of the blue-green algae events in Lough Neagh, impacting the candidate site at Rea’s Wood in Antrim.

"I am committed to tackling the issues and have published an Action Plan to clean up Lough Neagh and have already delivered on a number of the commitments.

"Part of this is to ensure clearer messaging to the public about the risks and this year for the first time we implemented the Inter-Agency Monitoring Protocol for Blue Green algae that has helped inform and natural heritage.

"Our bathing waters are a huge asset to Northern Ireland, valued by locals and visitors alike, and my Department will continue to work with the agriculture sector, NI Water and bathing water operators to manage risks to water quality and strive for improvements,” he said.

Mr. Muir encouraged people to consider using the bathing water quality prediction app ‘Swim NI’.

The software application provides daily forecasts of bathing water quality at six beaches, enabling bathers to make an informed choice.

The project is a collaboration between scientists at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and communications partner Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and is a continuation of work developed under the EU Interreg VA SWIM project.

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