The Carryduff River (

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

''Abhainn Cheathrú Aodha Dhuibh'') is a minor river in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It is a direct tributary of the

River Lagan The River Lagan (; Ulster Scots: ''Lagan Wattèr'') is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs 53.5 miles (86 km) from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The ...

and is not navigable.

Course

The river rises in Killinure townland, in the boggy ground at the northern base of

Ouley Hill Ouley Hill is 180 m high and lies in County Down Northern Ireland between Carryduff and Saintfield. Its name is derived It was the site of a battle in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster ...

(186 metres), and is fed by numerous drainage ditches as it passes through the farmland to the south of the town of

Carryduff Carryduff ()Northern Ireland Placenames Project
is a small ...

. From here it passes beside Knockbracken open reservoir and flows north down through a gap in the Castlereagh Hills, renamed Purdy's Burn. It then flows into the Lagan Valley, and joins the River Lagan at Minnowburn. The Carryduff River has been covered over and encased in a pipe for some of its urban stretches.

Settlements and routes

The original village of Carryduff grew up at the point where the routes south out of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the bu ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, and the east-west routes from Hillsborough to the head of

Strangford Lough Strangford Lough (from Old Norse ''Strangr Fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet"PlaceNames N ...

, all met at the Carryduff River.

Water quality

Its water quality has been rated as BAD by the Dept of the Environment's water service.

Leisure

It is a frequent bathing spot for the local Killinure population. Rivers of County Down {{NorthernIreland-river-stub