Proposed British Isles fixed sea link connections

There are a number of proposed fixed connections, historic and contemporary—road or rail, bridge or tunnel—designed to connect the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, connect the island of Great Britain to mainland Europe, as well as to build other connections amongst the smaller islands in the British Islands.

Proposed fixed sea links between Great Britain and Ireland

Possible routes

North Channel (Galloway) route

This route, a distance of 21 miles (34 km), has been proposed variously as either a tunnel or a bridge. A 2010 report by the Centre for Cross Border Studies estimated building a bridge between Galloway and Ulster would cost just under £20.5 billion. The proposal would see passengers board trains in Glasgow then cross on the bridge via Stranraer and alight in Belfast or Dublin. A longer bridge already exists between Shanghai and Ningbo in East China. Some political parties in Northern Ireland have included the bridge in their manifesto for some time. However, because of the Beaufort's Dyke sea trench which is approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) deep, this route would be deeper than the southern routes between Wales and Ireland. The sea trench was also used for dumping munitions after World War II, and so would require an expensive cleanup operation. Ronnie Hunter, former chairman of the Institute of Civil Engineers Scotland, suggested that the project was a "stretch but doable". He cited the lack of "soft rock, the chalk and sandstone" as a challenge compared to the construction of the Channel Tunnel.