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Displaying items by tag: Coastal Notes

#CoastalNotes - Heavy rains last week caused the latest in a series of landslides that has cut off a coastal village in Co Kerry, as TheJournal.ie reports.

Only pedestrian access is currently permitted on the Cliff Road to Rossbeigh after a partial collapse of the roadside into the sea on Thursday (17 September).

But the cliff fall is no surprise to locals who have complained for the last two years over increasing erosion caused by various heavy rains and severe storms.

TheJournal.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

#CoastalNotes - Two tourist attractions on the south coast will receive funding under the Government's new 'Ireland's Ancient East' initiative.

Cobh's Titanic Connections attraction and guided tours of Hook Lighthouse in Co Wexford are among 12 projects that will share in €1.2 million of funding made available by Minister for Tourism Pascal Donohoe, as TheJournal.ie reports.

Other attractions benefiting from the windfall include Boyne Valley: Waterway Through Time in Trim, Co Meath.

And a further €600,000 will go towards branded signage for the initiative which aims to be an east coast rival to the successful Wild Atlantic Way.

TheJournal.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

#CoastalNotes - Emergency services rushed to the aid of an elderly man who fainted on the new cliff walk at The Gobbins in Co Antrim on Thursday (3 September).

As BelfastLive reports, the 79-year-old collapsed half-way along the "white-knuckle" coastal path that recently welcomed its 1,000th visitor since reopening last month for the first time since the 1950s.

The path was closed during the incident as the man recovered enough to walk away with the aid of council staff and local fire fighters. He was subsequently pronounced fit and healthy by paramedics at a waiting ambulance.

Mid and East Antrim Council has warned that the dizzying Gobbins path requires a reasonable level of fitness to traverse its series of rugged steps, tunnels, caves and tubular bridges that are not for the faint-hearted.

Published in Coastal Notes

#Portrush - RNLI lifeguards on Northern Ireland's north coast who spotted a suspicious object in the sea on Thursday afternoon (2 July) recovered an old sofa that had been dumped in the water.

Senior lifeguard Bosco McAuley and lifeguards Bruce and Shane Traill were patrolling Whiterocks Beach in Portrush around 2pm on Thursday when they spotted something in the water 150m from the shore.



The lifeguards, who couldn’t tell what was in the water using their binoculars, immediately launched their rescue water craft and made their way to the scene to investigate.

Weather conditions at the time were very good as around 200 people were enjoying the sunshine on the beach.



The lifeguards soon discovered that the object was an old sofa which had been dumped into the sea. On recovering the item out of the water and away from public harm, the lifeguards proceeded to put the sofa on one of their trucks and safely disposed of it.

"While on one hand it might appear quite funny that we launched and recovered an old sofa from the sea, it is important to point out that our lifeguards, who are highly skilled and trained, acted in good faith responding swiftly when they noticed something unusual in the water," said RNLI lifeguard supervisor Tim Doran.



"We would always encourage visitors to the beach to alert us or phone the coastguard should they notice anything suspicious. We would always rather investigate the incident to find it is a sofa and all is well than not know and then discover too late that someone is in difficulty."



Doran added: "Our lifeguards will deal with a variety of incidents over the summer period and while I hope this will be one of the fewer types of instances, it does highlight the vigilance they show to keep our beaches safe."

Published in Coastal Notes

#Benone - The RNLI beach lifeguard unit on Benone Strand on the North coast has been vandalised for a second time in a week.

During what is traditionally one of the RNLI lifeguard’s busiest weeks of the year, the charity’s lifeguards discovered on Wednesday morning (1 July) that vandals had damaged the exterior of the beach lifeguard unit for a second time within a week.



The railings around the exterior of the hut had been badly bent, a ventilation fan on the roof of the unit had been broken off, and fencing leading up to the unit that protects the surrounding dune system had also been broken.



The RNLI are working closely with the PSNI in an attempt to prevent further damage being done to the beach unit throughout the summer.



"It is estimated that repairs to the beach lifeguard unit will run into hundreds of pounds for the charity, as the railings, fencing and ventilation fan will have to replaced and fitted," said RNLI lifeguard supervisor Tim Doran.



"While our lifeguards are on duty many people come up to the units for assistance and advice and they are easily identifiable. We hope that these acts of vandalism will cease and that our lifeguards can continue to operate from them safely when carrying out their lifesaving work."

Published in Coastal Notes

#CoastalNotes - Doolin expects to double the number of visitors on its ferry route to the Aran Islands after the opening of its new €6m pier last week.

As the Irish Examiner reports, it's envisaged up to 200,000 people will use the Co Clare village as a gateway to the Galway Bay island chain via the new pier which does away with the former practice of 'trans-shipping', or ferrying passengers by currach from the older, smaller pier to the ferry offshore at low tide.

Among the locals hailing the new pier's potential for the locality is ferry operator Eugene Garrihy, who says it represents "the best money spent here in decades" and believes the investment "will double within the next three to five years" as the previously announced master plan is carried out.

Garrihy adds that the ferry route was "completely hamstrung in the past by tidal issues, which prevented us [ferry operators] from scheduling sailings for a peak period of the day, but now the pier is redeveloped the shackles are definitely off for us.”

He also said that despite opposition from surfers over the pier's feared impact on the Crab Island wave, they have benefitted from the project in the form of a shower block and new launch area.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes
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#CoastalNotes - 'Poor' water quality off Youghal have seen the Cork town's beach subject to bathing advisories for the remainder of the summer season, as the Irish Examiner reports.

Stricter EU regulations on bathing water quality have prompted Cork County Council to erect notices advising against swimming at the popular Front Strand till at least 15 September.

Regular testing will be carried out in the meantime at the beach, which suffers more than others in the area due to runoff from farms along the River Blackwater which enters the sea nearby.

Youghal has long been identified as a pollution blackspot on the Irish coast, being one of a number of urban areas still discharging untreated wastewater into the sea.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

#MaritimeART – The Port of Cork Maritime Collection is to be hosted by the Bantry Bay Port Company writes the West Cork Times.

The exhibition of maritime themed paintings and models is now open at Bantry House, West Cork.

Visitors to the exhibition (which runs until 28th June), will showcase a selection of the Port's historic maritime art pieces dating back from the 1800s.

Highlights of the collection include a number of paintings by marine artist George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson and Robert Lowe Stopford who is known for his series of panoramic views of Queenstown.

This exhibition offers the public a chance to view this one of a kind collection of paintings which is usually housed in the Port's headquarters in Custom House.

For more on this story, click here.

Published in Coastal Notes

#CoastalNotes - The video above is not a coastal distress flare, but a 'fireball' from space burning up as it enters the atmosphere far above Ireland.

A flurry of reports from concerned members of the public received by the Irish Coast Guard have been traced to the meteorite that streaked across the sky on Sunday night (April 26).

The Irish Mirror has more on the spectacular phenomenon that lit up the whole country for a few seconds shortly after 10pm on Sunday.

And as David Moore of Astronomy Ireland says, it was so bright that it's likely part of the space rock survived re-entry and might be found intact somewhere on land or shore.

Published in Coastal Notes
Tagged under

#GalwayBay - Galway City Council will soon open a public consultation on a proposed new walkway between Salthill and Silverstrand, as the Galway Advertiser reports.

The new Galway Bay coastal walking route will comprise a series of "scenic pathways and footbridges spanning the shoreline" between the Salthill Promenade and the beach at Silverstand in Barna two miles to the west.

And the €7 million project also involved works to protect from coastal erosion, which will speed up the foreshore licence application process once the views of the pubic have been sought.

The Galway Advertiser has more on the story HERE.

Published in Galway Harbour
Tagged under
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Dun Laoghaire Harbour Information

Dun Laoghaire Harbour is the second port for Dublin and is located on the south shore of Dublin Bay. Marine uses for this 200-year-old man-made harbour have changed over its lifetime. Originally built as a port of refuge for sailing ships entering the narrow channel at Dublin Port, the harbour has had a continuous ferry link with Wales, and this was the principal activity of the harbour until the service stopped in 2015. In all this time, however, one thing has remained constant, and that is the popularity of sailing and boating from the port, making it Ireland's marine leisure capital with a harbour fleet of between 1,200 -1,600 pleasure craft based at the country's largest marina (800 berths) and its four waterfront yacht clubs.

Dun Laoghaire Harbour Bye-Laws

Download the bye-laws on this link here

FAQs

A live stream Dublin Bay webcam showing Dun Laoghaire Harbour entrance and East Pier is here

Dun Laoghaire is a Dublin suburb situated on the south side of Dublin Bay, approximately, 15km from Dublin city centre.

The east and west piers of the harbour are each of 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) long.

The harbour entrance is 232 metres (761 ft) across from East to West Pier.

  • Public Boatyard
  • Public slipway
  • Public Marina

23 clubs, 14 activity providers and eight state-related organisations operate from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that facilitates a full range of sports - Sailing, Rowing, Diving, Windsurfing, Angling, Canoeing, Swimming, Triathlon, Powerboating, Kayaking and Paddleboarding. Participants include members of the public, club members, tourists, disabled, disadvantaged, event competitors, schools, youth groups and college students.

  • Commissioners of Irish Lights
  • Dun Laoghaire Marina
  • MGM Boats & Boatyard
  • Coastguard
  • Naval Service Reserve
  • Royal National Lifeboat Institution
  • Marine Activity Centre
  • Rowing clubs
  • Yachting and Sailing Clubs
  • Sailing Schools
  • Irish Olympic Sailing Team
  • Chandlery & Boat Supply Stores

The east and west granite-built piers of Dun Laoghaire harbour are each of one kilometre (0.62 mi) long and enclose an area of 250 acres (1.0 km2) with the harbour entrance being 232 metres (761 ft) in width.

In 2018, the ownership of the great granite was transferred in its entirety to Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council who now operate and manage the harbour. Prior to that, the harbour was operated by The Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, a state company, dissolved in 2018 under the Ports Act.

  • 1817 - Construction of the East Pier to a design by John Rennie began in 1817 with Earl Whitworth Lord Lieutenant of Ireland laying the first stone.
  • 1820 - Rennie had concerns a single pier would be subject to silting, and by 1820 gained support for the construction of the West pier to begin shortly afterwards. When King George IV left Ireland from the harbour in 1820, Dunleary was renamed Kingstown, a name that was to remain in use for nearly 100 years. The harbour was named the Royal Harbour of George the Fourth which seems not to have remained for so long.
  • 1824 - saw over 3,000 boats shelter in the partially completed harbour, but it also saw the beginning of operations off the North Wall which alleviated many of the issues ships were having accessing Dublin Port.
  • 1826 - Kingstown harbour gained the important mail packet service which at the time was under the stewardship of the Admiralty with a wharf completed on the East Pier in the following year. The service was transferred from Howth whose harbour had suffered from silting and the need for frequent dredging.
  • 1831 - Royal Irish Yacht Club founded
  • 1837 - saw the creation of Victoria Wharf, since renamed St. Michael's Wharf with the D&KR extended and a new terminus created convenient to the wharf.[8] The extended line had cut a chord across the old harbour with the landward pool so created later filled in.
  • 1838 - Royal St George Yacht Club founded
  • 1842 - By this time the largest man-made harbour in Western Europe had been completed with the construction of the East Pier lighthouse.
  • 1855 - The harbour was further enhanced by the completion of Traders Wharf in 1855 and Carlisle Pier in 1856. The mid-1850s also saw the completion of the West Pier lighthouse. The railway was connected to Bray in 1856
  • 1871 - National Yacht Club founded
  • 1884 - Dublin Bay Sailing Club founded
  • 1918 - The Mailboat, “The RMS Leinster” sailed out of Dún Laoghaire with 685 people on board. 22 were post office workers sorting the mail; 70 were crew and the vast majority of the passengers were soldiers returning to the battlefields of World War I. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat near the Kish lighthouse killing many of those onboard.
  • 1920 - Kingstown reverted to the name Dún Laoghaire in 1920 and in 1924 the harbour was officially renamed "Dun Laoghaire Harbour"
  • 1944 - a diaphone fog signal was installed at the East Pier
  • 1965 - Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club founded
  • 1968 - The East Pier lighthouse station switched from vapourised paraffin to electricity, and became unmanned. The new candle-power was 226,000
  • 1977- A flying boat landed in Dun Laoghaire Harbour, one of the most unusual visitors
  • 1978 - Irish National Sailing School founded
  • 1934 - saw the Dublin and Kingstown Railway begin operations from their terminus at Westland Row to a terminus at the West Pier which began at the old harbour
  • 2001 - Dun Laoghaire Marina opens with 500 berths
  • 2015 - Ferry services cease bringing to an end a 200-year continuous link with Wales.
  • 2017- Bicentenary celebrations and time capsule laid.
  • 2018 - Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company dissolved, the harbour is transferred into the hands of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council

From East pier to West Pier the waterfront clubs are:

  • National Yacht Club. Read latest NYC news here
  • Royal St. George Yacht Club. Read latest RSTGYC news here
  • Royal Irish Yacht Club. Read latest RIYC news here
  • Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. Read latest DMYC news here

 

The umbrella organisation that organises weekly racing in summer and winter on Dublin Bay for all the yacht clubs is Dublin Bay Sailing Club. It has no clubhouse of its own but operates through the clubs with two x Committee vessels and a starters hut on the West Pier. Read the latest DBSC news here.

The sailing community is a key stakeholder in Dún Laoghaire. The clubs attract many visitors from home and abroad and attract major international sailing events to the harbour.

 

Dun Laoghaire Regatta

Dun Laoghaire's biennial town regatta was started in 2005 as a joint cooperation by the town's major yacht clubs. It was an immediate success and is now in its eighth edition and has become Ireland's biggest sailing event. The combined club's regatta is held in the first week of July.

  • Attracts 500 boats and more from overseas and around the country
  • Four-day championship involving 2,500 sailors with supporting family and friends
  • Economic study carried out by the Irish Marine Federation estimated the economic value of the 2009 Regatta at €2.5 million

The dates for the 2021 edition of Ireland's biggest sailing event on Dublin Bay is: 8-11 July 2021. More details here

Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Offshore Race

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down the East coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry. The latest news on the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race can be found by clicking on the link here. The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

The 2021 Race will start from the National Yacht Club on Wednesday 9th, June 2021.

Round Ireland Yacht Race

This is a Wicklow Sailing Club race but in 2013 the Garden County Club made an arrangement that sees see entries berthed at the RIYC in Dun Laoghaire Harbour for scrutineering prior to the biennial 704–mile race start off Wicklow harbour. Larger boats have been unable to berth in the confines of Wicklow harbour, a factor WSC believes has restricted the growth of the Round Ireland fleet. 'It means we can now encourage larger boats that have shown an interest in competing but we have been unable to cater for in Wicklow' harbour, WSC Commodore Peter Shearer told Afloat.ie here. The race also holds a pre-ace launch party at the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

Laser Masters World Championship 2018

  • 301 boats from 25 nations

Laser Radial World Championship 2016

  • 436 competitors from 48 nations

ISAF Youth Worlds 2012

  • The Youth Olympics of Sailing run on behalf of World Sailing in 2012.
  • Two-week event attracting 61 nations, 255 boats, 450 volunteers.
  • Generated 9,000 bed nights and valued at €9 million to the local economy.

The Harbour Police are authorised by the company to police the harbour and to enforce and implement bye-laws within the harbour, and all regulations made by the company in relation to the harbour.

There are four ship/ferry berths in Dun Laoghaire:

  • No 1 berth (East Pier)
  • No 2 berth (east side of Carlisle Pier)
  • No 3 berth (west side of Carlisle Pier)
  • No 4 berth  (St, Michaels Wharf)

Berthing facilities for smaller craft exist in the town's 800-berth marina and on swinging moorings.

© Afloat 2020