M1 motorway

The M1 is a motorway in Northern Ireland, stretching 61 kilometres from Belfast to Dungannon. It passes through County Antrim, County Down, County Armagh and County Tyrone, forming part of the route between Belfast and Dublin. The motorway begins at the Broadway roundabout near Windsor Park and runs parallel to the Blackstaff River. It runs south as a dual three-lane motorway, passing to the east of Casement Park and through Dunmurry and Ballyskeagh.

The M1 is worth the journey as the longest motorway in Northern Ireland and the only one completed to its full planned length. Construction began in 1957, with sections opening between 1962 and 1968. The motorway follows the route of the former Lagan Canal between junctions 2 and 6. It was widened to three lanes in each direction between junctions 1 and 3. The M1 is straight and flat on certain stretches, leading to an urban myth about supplementary runways.

A visitor finds a motorway designed for high traffic flows, with service areas near Ballyskeagh offering petrol stations and restaurant facilities. The motorway crosses several rivers, including the Lagan, Pound River and River Bann, and skirts the Annagarriff Nature Reserve. It passes south of Lough Neagh and ends at Dungannon on the A4. The motorway’s route includes stretches built across a peat bog up to 12 metres deep, requiring the removal of 3.4 million cubic metres of peat.