Portavogie

A busy fishing village with wonderful beaches

Heritage & hospitality

Breathtaking beaches and wonderful vistas

Portavogie has a long fishing heritage, and two outstanding beaches with beautiful bays and coves to explore.

East Shore is a wonderful beach for walkers, with a good promenade. Adjacent to the beach carpark is an excellent children's playground. South Shore is located the other side of the harbour, and enjoys commanding views to Kilwarlin Lighthouse on South Rock, Green Isle, and the tern colony on Bird Isle.

Portavogie Harbour is located at the heart of the village; the busy working harbour can be viewed closely from the harbour carpark. The best time to see the harbour full of fishing vessels is weekends. Also worth watching out for are the seals that swim into the harbour.

Places worth visiting nearby

These are a couple of the interesting places waiting for you to explore in and around Portavogie

Kirkistown Racetrack

There are seven car race meetings, four sprints and two single venue rallies per year. There are also a dozen track days. Gearbox karts feature on the main circuit at some car meetings and non-gearbox karts have their own events on the Kirkistown West circuit. We have at least two motorbike race meetings. There are also bicycle race meetings, duathlons, motorcycle track days and race schools for both bikes and cars.

The racetrack is built over the layout of the old WWII airfield, whcih was was a satellie airfield to the main one at Ballyhalbert, and was opened in July 1944. These airfields have been home to squadrons of Hurricanes, Spitfires, Beaufighters, Mustang, Fulmars, Hellcats, and Seafires.
Ballyhalbert and Kirkistown airfields were transferred from the RAF to the Admiralty and became a Royal Naval Air Station on 24th April 1945: Ballyhalbert was commissioned as HMS Corncrake; Kirkistown commissioned as HMS Corncrake II.

Portavogie Harbour

Men have been fishing from this place since before records were kept, and there remains a strong tradition of the first Scottish fishermen who worked here.

The harbour is a working environment, and not suitable for unsupervised visitors. The boats arrive laden with fish from far and wide, and offload into the sheds on the quay opposite the carpark.

Lost Fishermen Memorial

Overlooking the harbour as a constant reminder of the risks involved in this challenging industry, you will see the memorial raised to the memory of those local fishermen who died or were lost at sea.