Rivers of Belfast A History

Description

Rivers of Belfast – A History
Des O’Reilly

Belfast’s iconic centrepiece may be the Lagan, but today many of the rivers of Belfast are hidden away, often diverted into tunnels to run silently beneath the city streets. Belfast owes its existence to all of these rivers. The city was founded beside a ford across the Lagan, on a promontory between the Farset and the Blackstaff. These rives, and the others of the Belfast Hills, provided the power for the mills that fuelled the industrial revolution, while the Lagan estuary gave the city further advantages including access to the sea and the space for shipbuilding.

This books is a comprehensive study of the rivers of Belfast, beginning with the geological background of the Lagan Valley and how the Ice Age established the modern drainage pattern. After exploring the natural and human history of the Lagan through the centuries, a chapter is devoted to each of the twelve minor river systems – the Derriaghy, Colin, Blackstaff, Forth, Ligoniel, Farset, Milewater, Ravernet, Purdysburn, Cregagh, Knock and Connswater, as well as the Lagan Navigation.

A celebration of all the Belfast rivers, this text brings them to life through lavish illustrations, evocative photography and specially commissioned maps.