Sandymount Strand

One of my favorite spots in Dublin. It is at its best at sunrise, you feel like you have the whole beach to yourself! It is really well kept, not a scrap of rubbish in sight! Really good location for a walk or a run. Get away from the busy city life and feel like you are in Costa la Sandyount!

I think this is the closest to a beach Dublin has to offer. A little away from city’s usual hustle bustle, this place offers a pleasant change. A good location for a run/​walk.
Wish there wasn’t low tide most of the times I have visited. Would love to see a real beach but hey the view is good particularly on a nice sunny day.

A nice place for a wander.
And if you wanted to reach the waterline, when the tide is out you’ll be wandering for a long long while!
It’s also the closest beach to where I live — I’ve only just realised this — woo hoo!
If you live nearby, then lucky you. I wish I did too.

The water is very shallow — when the tide is out, the low water line is about 3.4 kilometers away from the high mark.
The average person can walk that distance in just over thirty minutes.
It takes 6 minutes for the tide to come in.
Five stars if you’re into wet socks.
Two, otherwise.

Love it on a fine sunny day :-))

Sandymount Strand is the gift that keeps on giving.
Strolling along on the sand in the warmer months or looking out across the bay at sunrise… it’s a pretty special place to be.
An under-​appreciated spot, in my humble opinion.

Spring in Dublin makes living here so worthwhile. Now if I could figure out a way to spend 6 months here in the warmer months and 6 months elsewhere in the dark months then I would have ‘made it’.
I love that the sun is waking earlier and going to bed later like a wound up crackhead.
Starting my weekend with a good two hour round-​trip walk out towards the sea is the way I wish I could start everyday.
The strand, albeit humble has a quality about it that I guess is testament to the folks that populate it. From runners, to dog walkers to a dedicated partner wheeling his ill love one’s wheelchair.
A glimpse of the sun on those ripples and massage of that cool refreshing air can reinvigorate anyone.

This is not really a review of Sandymount Strand as it is now as it is a memoir of what it once was.
I grew up on Sandymount Strand (141 Strand Road). On warm summer days as a kid I would spend all day on the beach and my mother would hand me my lunch over the wall. It was the closest beach to the city (since, sadly, replaced by an esplanade) and during the summer hoards of children and their parents would descend on it and it was a hive of activity. When the tide went out (and it went out along way) hawkers would have pony and trap rides. «Penny a ride on the pony and trap, tuppence a ride on Trigger». He must have had a huge voice because I can still hear it in my mind’s eye (or my mind’s ear, I suppose) drowning out the general hubbub. There was an abandoned public swimming pool there and it was host to all sorts of crabs, eels, mussels (too polluted to eat) and so on. I loved to catch a crab and chase the girls with them. It was here I had my first kiss. I also remember one Sunday at Donahue’s Pub when the Sunday morning session ended and nobody wanted to stop so we adjourned to Sandymount Strand. It was a beautiful day and the beach was crowded and we had quite a crowd. At first it was just us but one woman in the audience shyly asked if she could sing and that opened the floodgates and we had all sorts of contributions. We played until dark.
I emigrated in 69 and it was quite a few years before I returned and there was that esplanade thing. Forget about using it as a beach for picnics, sand castle building, a general playground. I suppose the Dub 4s (and fair comment if you remind me that I am, or was, one too) could not stand having the masses descend on them and got it changed, but what a loss.
Footnote: Sandymount Strand was the Waxie’s Dargle. The gentlefolk in the 19^th century used to go to the Dargle river in the Wicklow mountains for picnics but Sandymount was as much as the poor folks could aspire to and it became known as the waxies’ (cobblers) Dargle.

Sandymount Strand is one of my many running routes. I particularly love it when it’s windy and rainy because then the beach is pretty much deserted and I can run on the sand close to the water.
When the weather is nice, a lot of people tend to go for a walk here– with and without their dogs– and enjoy the nice weather. Sandymount is nice for picnics as well, and the view is pretty. It’s also not quite as busy as Booterstown, which is just down the road which is an added bonus. All in all, Sandymount Strand is a nice piece of nature in the big smoke.

I have driven by here so many times and always said ‘god wouldn’t that be a lovely place to go for a walk…’ So this week I finally got up off my backside and hit the beach for a bit of a ‘jaunt.’
It was a lovely evening and the place was filled with guys out running, groups of girls out walking and yapping, a load of people gathered in a circle partaking in a yoga class on brightly coloured mats and families out for a gallivant with their dogs.
They have a path where you can walk along, but I chose to go down on to the sand and really ‘embrace’ the experience.
Bottom line is its lovely place to go for a nice walk or a run. I’m not sure how keen I’d be on going when the weather’s a bit crap though. I’m pretty sure I’d get blown away.

Sandymount Strand is the southside version of Clontarf, with the added bonus of being able to walk on the sand!
The area isn’t quite as pretty as Clontarf, but the views are lovely. I find the view of the two towers (the red and white ones, I think they’re from a power plant or something) very cute (as in, the ‘ugly but intriguing’ definition, not the ‘ahh so gorgeous’ definition).
If you ever doubted that people in Dublin like dogs, just spend an afternoon at Sandymount Strand. A whole pet shop worth of dogs will pass you by in about 10 minutes.
Lovely for a stroll, and great for watching storms roll in.

Until today, I was only familiar with Sandymount Strand through Joyce’s Ulysses. I had the opportunity to see this beach with my very own eyes today. It did not disappoint.
The beach was especially beautiful on a sunny August afternoon. Not ideal for swimming (the tide was too far out), it was a wonderful spot for a stroll. In fact, the beach was teeming with walkers. I love the feel of cold wet sand underneath my feet.
Sandymount Strand is an important part of the south side. It’s accessible by DART so all Dubliners can enjoy its sandy shore and picturesque view.

The southside isn’t exactly teeming with beaches and along with the tiny and hard to access whiterock beach at Killiney, Sandymount is pretty much the heavy hitter south of the river and what a place.
Although yesterday when I was there the weather was its usual gloom self, the beautiful panorama of Dublin made up for it. You can see north to the Howth Peninsula, south to Dun Loaighre as well as east out into the Irish channel.
Its not a sit on the beach kinda place and is more flat and strand like but great for walking, running, taking the dog out for a walk. If the tide is in the walk parallel to the sea is still nice and takes in the Martello tower near Sandymount. Would also be a great place to fly kites.
Another great free experience in Dublin to enjoy.