River Quoile
Coordinates: 54°22′12″N 5°40′38″W / 54.37000°N 5.67722°W
The Quoile (from Irish An Caol, meaning 'the narrow') is a river in County Down, Northern Ireland.
The river begins its life as the Ballynahinch River which flows from west of the town of Ballynahinch to Annacloy where it is known as the Annacloy River. This then becomes the Quoile proper, which flows through Downpatrick and the Quoile Pondage before finally emptying into Strangford Lough.
The river was effectively created when Edward Southwell (1705–1755) landlord of Downpatrick built a tidal barrier at the Quoile and began draining the land, creating 500 acres of land from what was previously the western branch of Strangford Lough. The name comes from the narrowest point of the estuary at Finnebrogue, where a ford and ferry existed before the construction of the bridge. Harris, in 1744, mistakenly writes that the name of the bridge should be Coyne (after the branch of Loch Cuan up stream) not Coyle because he overlooked the origin.
In October 1991, during dredging operations in the river, a piece of oak, perhaps the remains of a log-boat, was found. Following dendrochronological dating it was found to have a Neolithic date of 2739 BC.
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