conservational charity founded unknown headquarters wwt castle espie ballydrain road comber county down bt23 6ea t 028 9187 4146 f 028 9187 3857 e info.castleespie wwt.org.uk website www.wwt.org.uk footnotes references opening times november february mon fri 11 00 4 00 sat sun 11 00 4 30 march june mon fri 10 30 5 00 sat sun 11 00 5 30 july august mon fri 10 30 5 30 sat sun 11 00 5 30 september october mon fri 10 30 5 00 sat sun 11 00 5 30 castle espie is a wetland reserve managed by the wildfowl and wetlands trust wwt on the banks of strangford lough three miles south of comber county down northern ireland in the townland of the same name . it is part of the strangford lough ramsar site . it provides an early wintering site for almost the entire nearctic population of pale bellied brent geese . 1 the castle which gave the reserve its name no longer exists . contents 1 features 2 history 3 townland 4 references features edit it has the largest collection of ducks geese and swans in ireland . in addition to the reserve the site contains the kingfisher kitchen gift and book shop the graffan gallery exhibition areas hides woodland walks events and activities free parking and a picnic area . 1 history edit castle espie was officially opened as a wildfowl and wetlands trust centre by lady scott on 4 may 1990 . the site had previously been a limestone quarry and also had a brickworks pottery and lime kilns for producing lime from limestone as well as part of a farm . 2 in september 2007 the heritage lottery fund awarded a grant of 2.96 million towards a major wetland restoration project at castle espie the largest investment in biodiversity in northern ireland . at the heart of the project costing 4m in all will be the restoration and improvement of intertidal and freshwater habitats along the shores of strangford lough to encourage more species and greater numbers of waterbirds to feed roost or breed at castle espie as well as restoring important habitats . a new ecologically sustainable visitor centre would also be constructed and other improvements would be carried out to hides and observatories . 3 townland edit castle espie from irish caist al an easpaig meaning castle of the bishop 4 is also a townland of 255 acres in the civil parish of tullynakill and the historic barony of castlereagh lower . 5 references edit a b castle espie . wildfowl and wetlands trust . retrieved 2008 12 22 . castle espie . culture northern ireland . retrieved 2008 12 22 . castle espie wwt . wildlife extra . retrieved 2008 12 22 . castle espie . place names ni . retrieved 19 may 2015 . castle espie . ireatlas townlands database . retrieved 19 may 2015 . v t e wetlands acrotelm a directory of important wetlands in australia aquatic ecosystem aquatic plants atchafalaya basin backswamp bayou beach meadow blackwater river blanket bog bog bog garden brackish marsh callows carr cataract bog cienega clean water act coniferous swamp constructed wetland delta waterfowl foundation dambo drainage basin ducks unlimited estuary fen flark flood meadow flooded grasslands and savannas freshwater marsh freshwater swamp forest grass valley guelta halosere hydrosere igap ings interdunal wetland intertidal wetland karst kettle mangrove marsh marsh gas mere mire misse moorland muck mudflat muskeg oasis paludification palustrine wetland pocosin pond peat swamp forest poor fen pothole ramsar convention reed bed rich fen riparian zone river delta salt marsh salt pannes and pools shrub swamp slough string bog swamp telmatology tidal marsh wet meadow wetlands international wildfowl & wetlands trust will o the wisp v rzea forest vernal pool ya r coordinates 54 31 46 n 5 41 53 w 54.52935 n 5.69810 w 54.52935 ; 5.69810 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title castle espie & oldid 727179025 categories nature centres in northern irelandspecial protection areas in northern irelandvisitor attractions in county downwildfowl & wetlands trust centresprotected areas of county downtownlands of county downcivil parish of tullynakillhidden categories use dmy dates from june 2015use british english from june 2015articles containing irish language textcoordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 june 2016 at 06 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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