Castle Espie No 2 – Details not yet known but a record entrant from the off – Just like Castlemartin.

Castle Espie No 2 is a weather station in Northern Ireland at the north eastern tip of Strangford Lough. As far as I can ascertain it was brought into service approximately 3 weeks ago but already has recorded the regional daily “Highest maximum temperature” on the 31st October, 8th, 9th and now 13th November. A star performer in the high stakes from possibly day 1, and it really is not surprising. Met Office motivation at its finest.

A simple online search of Strangford Lough will immediately reveal the term “Micro Climate”. The sea lough is almost 20 miles long from the open sea, under 4 miles at its widest, very narrow at its seaward end w and generally shallow at mostly under 10 metres deep. Sheltered from strong winds from almost all compass points by surrounding low hills (Drumlins) the Lough is regarded as both the UK’s largest sea lough and its most sheltered. The Castle Espie site itself is further sheltered by extensive surrounding woodland and buildings in a highly managed artificial setting. Although not visible the red kites marks the Met Office quoted WGS84 (GPS) coordinates for its location.

For reference this is a wide angle map of the area that shows the location of other weather stations recording temperatures that have ever existed in the area.

All the stations around the Lough are long closed with the exception of Ballywatticock to the south east of Newtownards shown as the blue flag by the A20 road marker at the start of the Ards Peninsula. CIMO Class 4 Ballywatticock closed down on 12/3/2024 suggesting Castle Espie No 2 (n.b. No 1 was only a rain gauge site) is a replacement.

At this point I can add no more detail other than the observation that the Met Office do not seem to be trying to improve their network standards or representation of the wider area. Castle Espie is not a synoptic station dedicated to forecasting and is purely a climate reporting station that is located in a very exclusive micro climate. More detail will be required but I suspect this new site will continue to fall into the Class 4 of its predecessor or even the lower Class 5. The sceptic in me, however, also notes it is achieving almost instantaneous “fame” as a regular “hottest” daily site and that suggest potential “motivation”.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++STOP PRESS ADDITION++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

51.64039 5.00030 Unknown CIMO Assessment Installation date very recently for temperature recording.

Checking today to see if Castle Espie had made another appearance, I noted a different Castle …..Castlemartin Warren.

I will publish more details regarding Castlemartin Warren soon, but for now, I must just add that it seems remarkably “convenient” that new additional weather stations such as Buchan, Dundreggan, Castle Espie, and Brigton all immediately appear as star performers in the highs stakes.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/castle-espie-no-2-details-not-yet-known-but-a-record-entrant-from-the-off-just-like-castlemartin/