Ram's Island

Ram's Island is a wooded ridge almost a mile long, perhaps a glacial esker, lying about a mile off Lennymore Bay and Sandy Bay on the east shore. The stump of a round tower, a scheduled monument, survives from a monastic settlement of around a thousand years ago, near the ruins of the O’Neills’ 19th-century summer house. The Cardwell family, caretakers for the O’Neills, were the last to live here, until the 1930s. The O’Neill family still owns the island; the River Bann and Lough Neagh Association holds the lease, and its volunteers look after the place. They run booked day trips from Sandy Bay Marina on Wednesdays and Saturdays in summer, and camping and glamping on most summer weekends; a restored barge on the island has toilets. Anyone planning to land should contact them first.