Beach information, bathing-water quality, coastal conditions, environmental monitoring and practical updates for communities and visitors around Ireland.
Ireland continues to have overwhelmingly high bathing-water standards, with 98 per cent of officially designated sites meeting the required standard in the latest national…
Read articleDun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
EPA alert data last synced 24 Aug 2026, 03:20.
Current restrictions and beach signage take priority over annual classifications and individual sample results. Conditions can change between samples.
Forty Foot Bathing Place is classified as achieving Excellent Water Quality in 2025 based on the assessment of bacteriological results for the period 2022 to 2025. Forty Foot Bathing Place has achieved an Excellent Water Quality rating for the four consecutive years 2022 to 2025. Annual water quality ratings are generally calculated using monitoring results over a four-year period and are assessed against stringent bacterial limits to protect bather health.
| Date | Sample status | E. coli | Intestinal enterococci |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug 2026 | Excellent | <10 | 2 |
| 10 Aug 2026 | Excellent | <10 | <1 |
| 4 Aug 2026 | Excellent | 20 | 6 |
| 27 Jul 2026 | Excellent | 10 | 3 |
| 20 Jul 2026 | Excellent | <10 | 2 |
| 13 Jul 2026 | Excellent | 31 | 4 |
| 6 Jul 2026 | Excellent | <10 | 2 |
| 29 Jun 2026 | Excellent | 20 | 7 |
| 23 Jun 2026 | Excellent | 52 | 8 |
| 15 Jun 2026 | Excellent | 20 | 6 |
| 9 Jun 2026 | Excellent | 10 | <1 |
| 2 Jun 2026 | Poor | 52 | 1770 |
The Forty Foot, a historic bathing pool on a promontory on the southern tip of Dublin Bay, is a short walk from the James Joyce Tower, Sandycove. It used to be a male only swimming spot but today both men and women enjoy a swim here. The character of Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's Ulysses takes a dip in the Forty Foot. People have been swimming here for the past 250 years.
Managed by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
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