Belfast tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 05:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Europe/London local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Belfast sits at the head of Belfast Lough, a drowned river valley that opens northeast into the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland. The tide here is semidiurnal — two high waters and two low waters every day — with a mean spring range of around 3.0 to 3.4 metres. It is a substantial but not dramatic range by UK standards, enough to expose mudflat and rock at the lough edges on every tide and to make the working port at Belfast a tide-influenced environment, but not in the same league as the Severn Estuary to the south. The lough's semi-enclosed geometry means the tidal signal arrives cleanly, and the tide times at Belfast are consistent and predictable. What makes tidal Northern Ireland exceptional is not Belfast Lough itself but what lies 30 kilometres south: Strangford Lough and its Narrows. Strangford is a 150-square-kilometre enclosed lough, shallow over most of its area, connected to the open Irish Sea only through a 600-metre channel between Strangford village on the west and Portaferry on the east. On each tidal cycle, the same volume of water that fills that entire lough must pass through that 600-metre gap — and the physics of that constraint produce tidal currents in the Narrows that reach 7 to 8 knots at peak spring. The standing wave and boil patterns in the Narrows on a big spring ebb are visible from the shore: the surface is roughened and turbulent, ropes of current bending around the ferry pier. SeaGen, the world's first commercial tidal stream turbine, stood in the Narrows from 2008 to 2019, extracting electricity from those currents. The technology was effectively a horizontal-axis wind turbine mounted on a monopile and rotated by the tidal flow — it generated up to 1.2 MW on a good spring tide. Strangford Lough is also designated as a Marine Conservation Zone and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Inside the lough, the tidal regime creates a patchwork of habitats: horse mussel beds in the subtidal zone, cockle beds and lugworm at the intertidal margins, glasswort and sea purslane on the higher saltmarsh. The lough holds one of Ireland's largest populations of common seals, visible hauled out on the rocks and mudflats at low tide throughout the year. Common eider ducks breed on the islands in the lough — the lough holds most of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland's eider breeding population. The Delamont Country Park on the southwest shore provides the best accessible vantage point for low-tide wildlife watching in the lough. On the Causeway Coast in the north, the tidal character changes. Ballycastle, Portrush, and the stretch of coast between them fronts the open Atlantic with a spring range of 3 to 4 metres and regular Atlantic swell. The Giant's Causeway — the UNESCO World Heritage Site of hexagonal basalt columns at the base of the cliffs between Portballintrae and Ballintoy — is partly intertidal. At low tide, the lower levels of the causeway are accessible and reveal the full geometry of the interlocking columns running into the sea. At high tide, the wave action covers the lower sections, and the columns visible from the clifftop viewing area have a different quality — the sea filling the channels between them rather than the dry stone exposed on a low neap. For anglers, Belfast Lough's rocky shores and piers provide pollock, wrasse, coalfish, and occasional bass — all improved by the tidal change. The junction of flood and ebb near the lough mouth is particularly productive as baitfish concentrate in the currents. Shore fishing from the rocks at Black Head on the north shore, or from the County Down shore at Orlock Point, follows the standard Irish Sea pattern: incoming flood tide two to three hours on either side of high water. Kayakers exploring Belfast Lough can launch from Holywood, Ballyholme Bay (Bangor), or Helen's Bay and find sheltered water inside the lough on most conditions. Beginners should avoid the Narrows at Strangford — that is advanced tidal water, and even experienced paddlers plan their entry and exit around the tidal window of slack water around high and low. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, typically accurate within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not a local gauge. Authoritative tide predictions for Belfast are published in Admiralty Tide Tables volume 1 (UK Hydrographic Office) and by the NTSLF gauge station at Belfast Harbour.