Strangford Lough Lookout Posts

The Cuan Inn lies just beside Strangford Lough and makes for a comfortable and richly hospitable lodging for travellers. So much so that the Game of Thrones cast use it as their accommodation when filming scenes at nearby Castle Ward, otherwise now known as Winterfell. The owners of the Inn would seem to do their very best to acknowledge the commercial possibilities this brings whilst avoiding turning themselves into a theme park. So, for the most part, the inn continues its traditional role as local pub, and provider of rather delicious local seafood.

Strangford Customs and Watch House. The lands across the lough will have been very close to the Wombwell lands in Ballyedock.

Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Strangford Quay, just around the corner from the Cuan inn developed into the eighth busiest port in Ireland. Into this port came sugar, rum, French brandy, tobacco, and more. At least that is what was supposed to happen. For this was a boom that was accompanied by a thriving smuggling trade, leading eventually to the building of the Newry Custom and Watch House next to the quay. Whether this succeeded in regulating the illicit trade is another matter, and there would appear to be plenty of reports that the customs officials often found it more judicious to work with the smugglers rather than against them. Given in any case that the lough covers over 150 square kilometres, and is the largest inlet in Great Britain, it was a trade that would not have been easy to curtail.

One named individual who apparently did extremely well out of the smuggling trade was one John Potter. And John Potter is yet another member of the large cast of individuals identified in the Harriett Wombwell 1881 auction lots, doing real estate business with Hugh Nevin of the well-known Scottish Presbyterian family.