Castlemaine Harbour was legally protected as a national nature reserve by the Irish government in 1990. The area is also listed as a
Special Area of Conservation and a
Special Protection Area. In 1990, the site was also declared
Ramsar site number 470. The Harbour is at the head of
Dingle Bay, and is the estuary of two rivers. The reserve includes
salt marshes,
sandbanks, and
mudflats which are protected from the sea by a large system of
dunes. One of the four largest
Zostera beds in Ireland is found in the Harbour's mudflats, and these provide food for a wide variety of water birds which overwinter there, including the
light-bellied Brent goose,
Branta bernicla hrota. ==References==