Groomsport

Groomsport Harbor Car Park with slipway & beach. Watch out for the HSS Ferry as it can create a large wash which can take you by surprise. 

Cockle Island off Groomsport Harbor, rumoured to be either privately owned or National Trust property. Cockle is quite extensive at low water but tiny at high water. It shelters the harbour at Groomsport, enabling a couple of dozen moorings in its lee. A remarkable reef, it is submerged by the highest tides, and there is no grass or greenery of any kind. It is always separated from the shore by deep water. Black Headed Gulls and Herring Gulls occupy different sections of it for roosting. There are reports of Terns nesting. Its claim to fame includes a Sooty Tern (called locally Wideawake Tern in Ascension Island where they spend the rest of the year). 

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