Portaferry (from Irish Port an Pheire 'landing place of the ferry') is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland, at the southern end of the Ards Peninsula, near the Narrows at the entrance to Strangford Lough.

[2] Pot fishing, mainly for prawns and crabs and licensed shellfish farming takes place within Strangford Lough.

[6] Portaferry is classified as an intermediate settlement by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with population between 2,250 and 4,500 people).

Of these: The Portaferry area is popular with local and foreign tourists for its beauty, history, wildlife and other visitor attractions.

Over 2000 species of marine animals have been found in the lough and internationally important flocks of wildfowl and wading birds converge there in winter.

Many of the women in the town were employed to embroider handkerchiefs for Thomas Somerset and Co. one of the major linen companies in Ireland.

There was also a bus service introduced to bring more women from the Ards Peninsula to Portaferry to work in the factory that Somerset built.