Castlemaine Harbour

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Castlemaine Harbour is a coastal area in County Kerry, Ireland. It covers about 2,281 acres (9.23 square kilometres). It is protected as a Ramsar wetland, a Special Area of Conservation, a Special Protection Area, and a National Nature Reserve. It has been protected since 1990. The harbour is at the head of Dingle Bay and is the estuary where two rivers meet. The area includes salt marshes, sandbanks and mudflats, protected by a large system of dunes. One of Ireland’s four largest eelgrass beds (Zostera) grows in the mudflats and provides food for many water birds that spend the winter there, including the light-bellied Brent goose. Other birds seen there include sanderlings, oystercatchers, red-throated divers and greenshanks. The natterjack toad, an endangered species in Ireland, also lives in the reserve.