The

River Lagan

www.laganvalleylearning.co.uk

Katie kingfisher lives along the River Lagan. She loves living there and thinks she’s the luckiest bird alive to have such a beautiful home. One day she starts to think about her river and she asks herself some questions.• Where does the river start?

• Where does it end up?

• Does it change along the way?

• Who else lives along the Lagan?

Katie decides she’s going to go on an adventure to discover the Lagan!

Katie investigates the river

• High up in the hills rain falls from the clouds, the rain water runs into lots of little streams.

• These streams flow down the mountains and get bigger as they travel down the hills.

• A river is formed when lots of these small streams join together.

• Rivers end up in lakes or the sea.

Where do rivers come from?

Water evaporatesRivers flow

Rain fallsClouds form

Katie goes onto the internet and finds out some interesting facts about the River Lagan…

The start of a river is called the source. It is usually found in the hills

or mountains.

The end of a river is called the mouth. The mouth of the River Lagan flows into the sea.

The River Lagan is 60km long. It flows through towns such as Lisburn and Belfast.

Katie finds out facts

Katie decides to visit the source of the river. She knows it’s in the hills in a place called ‘Slieve Croob’. She can’t wait to see what she will find.

Katie can’t believe her eyes when she’s told this tiny trickle of water

coming up from a spring is the source. She thinks of her mighty

Lagan further downstream and feels very confused.

The source of the River Lagan

The Dromara Hills

near the Mournes

Katie and the source

How does the river become so big when it starts so small?

The route a river takes from the source to the mouth is called the river course. Rivers don’t flow in straight lines they twist and turn through the surrounding countryside. A big bend in a river is called a meander.

Meander

This is what a river would look like if you cut it in half.

A. The bottom of a river is called the river bed.

B. The side of a river is called the river bank.

C. Where the water flows is called the channel.

Katie discovers more river facts

A.

C.

B.

Katie finds a map of the river as it flows through the Lagan Valley Regional Park. It passes through the towns of Lisburn and Belfast. Can you spot where your school is?

Map of the River Lagan

Katie discovers that people have been living beside rivers for thousands of years.

Why do you think people chose to live beside rivers in the past?

Drinking water

Transport Bathing Water for growing food

People and the Lagan

Stone age man7000BC

The Normans1200’s

The mill workers1700’s

Canal Folk1700’s – 1950’s

Who lived along the Lagan?

Katie discovers that in the 1700’s a canal was built from Lough Neagh to Belfast. The canal was used for transporting goods to and from the many industries dotted along the Lagan.

Beside the canal you can see a towpath. Horses were used to pull boats along the canal.

Lagan Canal towpath

The Lightermen and their families usually lived on board the boat. The job of the lighterman was to transport the cargo between Belfast and Lough Neagh as quickly as possible.

What might their cargo have

been?

Lightermen

Sometimes the river was too narrow, too shallow or the bends too sharp for boats to pass through. Other passageways known as “cuts” were dug and locks and weirs put in place to regulate the depth.

Cuts, locks and weirs

Lock keepers were the people who looked after the locks and made sure that the boats got through safely. The Lagan Navigation Company, who owned the canal, employed them and they were given houses to live in, beside the locks, as part of the job.

Lock keepers

Canoeing Fishing Rowing

Swimming Watching wildlife

Walking along the towpath

How do people use theRiver Lagan today?

Otters Heron Eels

Ducklings DragonfliesSalmon

What kind of wildlife lives inthe Lagan?

Katie has followed the course of the river through the Lagan Valley Regional Park and she is wondering, “Where does it end?”

The River Lagan winds its way to Belfast Lough.

Belfast Lough is still a major port today, with lots of passenger and cargo ferries.

What an AMAZING journey!

Where the river ends

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