|
 Barholm
is a lovely Edwardian House which overlooks Strangford
Lough. We offer comfortable accommodation for up to 48
people, with a choice of single, double, family or group
rooms. With a large conservatory adjoining the house, you
can enjoy your meals whilst looking over the Lough, and
the beauti ful
scenery that is before you.
We
have a large fully equipped kitchen for self-catering, but
we also have excellent caterers who can provide one or all
of your meals at reasonable cost. £16.00 per person for a
full day's catering, includes a three course evening meal,
all home cooked on the premises.
Conference facilities are available, and are suitable for
seminars, workshops and functions. We seat up to 50
theatre style.
We are the ideal
location for divers, and have a compressor on site
for air fills, and an airing room for suits. The
ferry is directly opposite us, and diving clubs make
use of the slip when launching their RIBS. The
Portferry Marina is located approximately 200 metres
distance from Barholm.
 Strangford is
the largest sea inlet in the British Isles with a
meandering shoreline of 15O miles. This gigantic
inland sea, has about 120 small islands and is
surrounded almost entirely by land. This means there
is an enormous diversity of easily accessible diving
sites. Quite simply, Strangford Lough is unique, a
marine biologist's paradise. Strangford boasts some 15 divable wrecks.
The Lough is connected to the sea by a long narrows
where the sea is usually flat and calm. This belies
the fierce currents of up to 8 knots and depths of 80
metres which can make this as adventurous a dive as
anyone could wish for. Sheer cliffs are covered by
luxurious growths
of dead men’s fingers and big sponges which, even at
slack water, makes the dive exciting.
The
appeal of the Lough to marine biologists is its very wide
range of seabed conditions, influenced by water movements
and the enormous diversity of species which are found.
The
life on the seabed and around the many wrecks is varied
and prolific with urchins, anemones, sea squirts,
scallops, crabs, prawns and even octopus. The scampi prawn
is common in the Lough and can often be seen on the mud or
outside its burrows. 
There is one species of large sponge which was described
to science from specimens collected in Strangford.
Undoubtedly though, one of the richest
marine life communities is based around the big horse
mussels. Its colonies provide a stable attachment for many
other species including scallops. Many people believe
these beds to have been in place undamaged for hundreds of
years.
The
variety of marine life and good visibility, 4-l0 m plus,
make Strangford Lough an excellent site for underwater
photography.
|
