Dollymount Strand

What you don’t want to read in the Irish Times at bedtime the night of your swim, though, is the headline ‘Council to remove carcass of large shark from Dollymount Strand’ accompanied by an underwater shot of said decomposing fish. No, sir, you do not. But I did. So it may be a wee while before I take a plunge into the naturally murky water there again. Jelly-​fish fears fairly fade in light of the thought of bumping into a shark, even (or worse if the pic was anything to go by) a dead one!

Dollymount was the place to make Dublin childhood memories (so I’ve been told). Every summer «back in the day» the long sandy stretch was packed with kids, dogs at the surf, and cars parked along the beach to act as a breaker for that incessant wind. Queues of cars lined the Clontarf road waiting to get across the single lane wooden bridge (still do!).
It’s still a lovely spot for an afternoon walk, just be sure to be off the sand by dusk unless you’re a local or part of a crowd. During the day the strand is a haven for kite surfers, dog walkers (check the surf for spring-​loaded retrievers bounding along the breakers in utter doggy delight) and photogs –in the evenings however an entirely different element takes over, their detritus liable to be found underfoot the next day in the form of used needles and assorted garbage.
Translation: wear shoes.

Dollymount is a beautiful 5 km stretch of fine sand just 8 km from the city centre.
The beach is ALWAYS windy, which attracts Dublin’s kitesurfers who can be spotted whizzing along doing flips and twirls and other gravity defying stunts almost every weekend. I hear the water here is filthy though and many of them suffer from tummy bugs as a result (apparently a can of coke post session kills off all the bacteria!).
Parents used to bring their kids down here to learn how to drive, though this has been clamped down upon in recent times to prevent joyriders racing up and down the beach.
The strand flanks the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that is Bull Island, a haven for 40,000 migrating birds, as well as shrews, badgers and hares.