Challenging winds on the West Coast of Ireland.

The first outing of 2023 was a fresh one. The video says its all really. Hit a number of different places that i’d been to over the previouls few months.

Starting at Minard, It was a non event. The tide was on the way out, the winds were not up to much and the light was crap. Compared to the last time here, the light really is everything. Didn’t stay long here at all as it was obvious nothing was going to happen.

Onto Kinard with the view out towards An Searrach. This was “a totally different kettle of fish”. The sea spray here was impressive and the view out to An Searrach was great. Couldn’t/wouldn’t go onto the beach even when the tide was out. The wind was buffeting the car no end.

Definitely would have loved to go out on the same hike i’d been there previously but that wasn’t the “plan” for the day. Had to get to the West Coast just to see what was happening.

After a quick stop in Dingle for a coffee, it was onto the Slea Head Drive. The wind for the entirey of the day was just relentless. It was awesome. At no stage did it feel dangerous, but at the same time, don’t be daft, lots of the coast is exposed and even on a calm day you need to use your common sense.

Coumeenoole Beach at Dunmore head was the first stop. Thankfully i didn’t meet another car going from the car park to Dunmore head, otherwise that whole driving clip would’t have worked. So glad it did :D

Coumeenoole, Dunmore Head and The Great Blasket Island

The photograpers down on the beach were part of a Photography Workshop Tour, they has some weather for it. I went down to the beach like always and got caught with a small wave resulting in wet feet, Thankfully, it was not my first rodeo and i’d two more full spare sets of clothes in the car. Going onto the beach really gives a sense of the size of the waves, but unless you can go further to the left than was possible today, it looks like the best view of the devils horns(?) is coming down the road to the beach. Either way. It was all terribly impressive.

The highlight of the day was going on the short trip upto the top of Dunmore Head. The wind up here was brutal!!! To try and take a picture you’d to really brace yourself against the wind, and even then, it still proved difficult. The light out towards the island was unusual but hard to capture. Experiencing the power of it was just wow!!! It was sustained between 60-70 km/h with a peak of 92 km/h. Really glad i bought that Kestrel Anemometer last year as it takes the guesswork out of the actual numbers and its not just “crazy windy”.

As you can see in the video off to the right of the Blasket it was pretty dark. I’d no idea thunder/lightning was forecast, it wasnt earlier in the day, but when it started, even tho it was a bit off, it was not comfortable being up on top of the exposed Headland. A quick escape was made and i was glad to be back to the safety of the car. Lesson learned here is to check the weather regularly during a day like this, as when i looked at the Met.ie page on return it had info on lightning strikes in the area; there was quite a lot of activity. in reality i spend too much time here taking the same image (The Horns) over and over again. I never really quiet seemed to get the right wave shot.

Spent the rest of the day at Dunquin. Down on the pier, up along the coast. It was a great experience.

Thanks for wearing the bright blue jacket

I never really managed to capture a good wave shot. As busy as it was it just didn’t seem to be explosive. I had a quick chat with a photographer at Dunquin and he said Clogher Beach was unreal. At that stage it was too late in the day but i was going to pass it on the way home, and yea, what i saw even as it was after sunset was amazing. It was defitely the place to be and ive since seen images online, such as this one on instagram by Cuan Feiritéar that are great. Next Time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day. Just the experience of being out in these conditions has definitiely planted the seed for heading out in these conditions again.

Thanks for reading and see ye next time

Ed

Slea Head Storm

Strickeen

Irish Peaks Images