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Coastal Development in Ireland
Clean Sweep: Big Beach Clean volunteers take part in a Clean Coasts litter pick at Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow
Almost 10,000 volunteers took part in clean-ups across all 26 counties during Ireland’s Big Beach Clean, removing an estimated 58 tonnes of marine litter from beaches, waterways, towns and villages. Clean Coasts groups, community organisations and individuals organised some 500…
Lasting Legacy: Frank McDonald, the late Irish Times journalist, author and environmental campaigner, has been honoured by Coastwatch with an annual Frank’s Day celebrating his contribution to environmental journalism and citizen science
Coastwatch has paid tribute to the late Irish Times journalist, author and activist Frank McDonald by hosting an annual event in his memory. The first “Frank’s Day”, which was held online on Thursday, is dedicated to “carrying on his spirit…
Bright Night: A beach bonfire captures the spirit of Bop ar an Trá, which will bring music, dance and light to Gaeltacht communities for Culture Night
Blazing bonfires and spectacular light shows are promised on beaches around the coast for Culture Night on September 18th. A "chain of light along the Atlantic seaboard" is promised for "Bop ar an Trá", from An Rinn in the south…
Map of the inner exclusion zone to be imposed on the River Shannon
Following similar restrictions for mariners off the Wicklow coast earlier this month, a maritime exclusion zone will be imposed in support of a “major security operation” at Shannon Airport, on the River Shannon and at Doonbeg from 12-14 September. On…
Vermilion Energy logo
The Department of Transport has been advised by Vermilion Exploration & Production Ireland Limited of an inspection campaign of the Corrib offshore pipelines and umbilical. These works will commence on Thursday 3 September and will last for approximately 14 days,…
Uisce Éireann logo
The Department of Transport has been notified by Hydro Survey on behalf of Uisce Éireann that hydrographic and metocean survey operations will be undertaken in support of the South Cork Strategic Modelling Study. These surveys will take place along the…
Stack attack — Rock crashes into the Atlantic as a section of the 67-metre An Branán Mór sea stack breaks away at the Cliffs of Moher. Photo: Melissa Blackburn
A section of the 67-metre An Branán Mór sea stack at the Cliffs of Moher has broken away and fallen into the Atlantic in a dramatic example of the continuing erosion of the Co Clare coastline. The change in the…
Family Action: Volunteers launch the 2026 Big Beach Clean at Rosslare Strand, Co Wexford, encouraging communities across Ireland to register for September's nationwide coastal clean-up and citizen science campaign, supported by Kia Ireland.
Registrations have opened for the 2026 Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean, with volunteers across Ireland invited to help remove marine litter from beaches, waterways and coastal communities between 18 and 20 September. Organised by An Taisce's Clean Coasts programme, the…
We do love a little nose around an old building—but what about a ship too! In this case, it will be the LÉ Samuel Beckett (P63), an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) designed to work in the harsher seas of the Atlantic and which opens to public tours in Cork city’s central quays.
Visitors later this month will have a total of 42 historic buildings to access in Cork City and quays when they throw open their doors free of charge on Saturday, 15th August. The annual event will give the public a…
File image of the RRS James Cook docked at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre in Southampton
The Department of Transport has been notified by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre that marine environmental surveys will be carried out for the purposes of scientific discovery or research in the Irish EEZ from Monday 13 to Sunday 28 July,…
Uisce Éireann logo
The Department of Transport has been advised by Hydro Survey that they will carry out various surveys as part of the Uisce Éireann Sligo and Donegal Strategic Modelling Study. Operations will commence this Wednesday 8 July with a view to…
Uisce Éireann logo
Uisce Éireann is conducting marine survey activities in the Irish Sea, north of Howth. These works involve an environmental survey (grab samples), geotechnical survey (bore holes), and bathymetric and geophysical surveys. Survey works were set to begin this past Saturday…
An anchor from former flagship LÉ Eithne forms one of two new exhibits on display at the museum at Greencastle.
An historic naval anchor and propeller are installed outside the popular Greencastle attraction in Co. Donegal. Visitors to the Inishowen Maritime Museum, reports DonegalLive, can now see two significant new exhibits that were unveiled after being donated by the Irish…
Storm Warning — Waves crash over a seafront promenade during severe coastal conditions, highlighting the growing challenges posed by erosion, flooding and rising sea levels around Ireland's coast.
Ireland must move from monitoring coastal erosion physically to establishing “urgent legal and financial mechanisms required to relocate homes and infrastructure”, new research states. The research says that there should be mandatory natural hazard disclosure in property transactions, and climate…
File aerial image of Howth Harbour in Co Dublin
The Environmental Projection Agency has agreed to issue a licence to the Department of the Marine for the long-awaited Howth Harbour dredging project. That’s according to Howth Yacht Club Commodore Kevin Monks, who in his latest Commodore’s Update to club…
“Western
Sinn Féin Galway West by-election candidate Mark Lohan has said that communities across Connemara, the islands and throughout Galway are being “slowly hollowed out” by Government neglect. He has said rising living costs and the failure to invest in the…

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.