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The Six Mile Water is a river in southern County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is an indirect tributary of the River Bann, via Lough Neagh.

Name

The river was historically called the (river) Ollar and is known in Irish as Abhainn na bhFiodh (river of the wood).[1]

While short, it is closer to 26 miles (42 km) long than six;[2] accounts vary as to the origins of the name. The most widely accepted story is that Norman soldiers marching from Carrickfergus Castle calculated that they had marched six miles (10 km) when they forded the river at Ballyclare. When the Normans built the castle at Carrickfergus they placed a line of outposts along the river which was then called the Ollar (River of the Rushes). In time the soldiers making the journey from Carrickfergus to Antrim reached the river at this spot when they had travelled six miles (10 km) so began to call the Ollar the Six Mile Water.[3]

Course and catchment

It rises in the hills west of Larne and north of Carrickfergus and descends gently westward, flowing through or close to the communities of Ballynure, Ballyclare, Doagh, Parkgate, Templepatrick, Dunadry and Antrim into Lough Neagh. A weir exists at Ballyclare where water was diverted to the paper mill. The Six Mile Water Park was constructed around the river in Ballyclare, in order that the river's frequent floods would not affect houses in the area. It has a catchment of 117 square miles.[4]

Culture

The river is the subject of the song Six Mile Water, by the Metal band Therapy?. It appeared on their fifth full-length album Suicide Pact - You First released in 1999.

See also

• List of rivers of Northern Ireland

References

External links

• Geograph - Bridge over Six Mile Water, Antrim Photograph

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