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Displaying items by tag: Sea Cave

A man has been rescued from a sea cave on the Co Mayo coast in which he has been trapped for close to 24 hours.

A multi-agency rescue operation had been awaiting low tide this afternoon (Sunday 18 September) to retrieve a man trapped in a sea cave at Downpatrick Head since the previous evening.

According to The Irish Times, the man in his 40s had been exploring the cave with a woman on Saturday (17 September) when they became trapped by the rising tide and were swept off a ledge by a wave surge.

The woman was taken from the water by kayakers who responded to the emergency and then to safety while the man climbed onto a ledge where he remained overnight.

Local gardaí say the man maintained contact with rescuers from the Irish Coast Guard and RNLI who were hopeful of gaining access to the sea cave with this afternoon’s forecast low tide.

RTÉ News reports that rescuers this afternoon brought the man to the mouth of the cave, where he was fitted with a buoyancy suit before being airlifted to hospital by the Sligo-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 118.

This story was updated at 5pm with additional information.

Published in Rescue

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.