Portmarnock Strand

When I have worked too much and have too many tests to correct and too many lessons to prepare and too much going on (wow I need to breathe!), I cycle all the way from Dublin centre to this beach. I love cycling and this route is about 17 kms long and I love every second of it!
This place makes me feel peaceful and the strand is very long with beautiful rocks and scenery. If you do not exercise that much, there are buses and a main Dart train line in this area too.
There is also a Martello tower overlooking the beach, a very local small ice cream stand besides several hotels along the path and a nice monument to honor the first solo westbound transatlantic flight which began there.
When you are in the middle of the beach you can see a bit far away Ireland’s Eye, a tiny uninhabited island directly north of Howth Harbour.
I swim most of the times when I am feeling brave enough and the waves can be quite rough so you need to be a kind of good swimmer.

Gorgeous beach on the northside of Dublin. It’s long long long, which means it’s great for walks, and it’s less crowded than say Malahide. However, there’s a good reason for that… it’s damn hard to find! When myself and a friend decided to go on a whim (neither of us ever having been there before), we took the DART out to Portmarnock Station. Logical enough no?! Well, goodness me was it a trial trying to find the beach. I swear it took us an hour if it took us ten minutes. Of course, we could just have been being incredibly stupid (a conclusion that isn’t outside the realms of possibility it must be said), but a word of advice would be to check a map before going, so you know which way to walk. Because it’s totally worth it!