Portmarnock Beach Committee

The Beach Committee have been working for the past number of years to enhance our local coastline. We have worked successfully with Fingal County Council to regain Blue Flag status for our beach.

Our Work

On behalf of our community we look after:

  • Portmarnock Velvet Strand and dunes, a year round  playground for Dubliners and visitors alike.
  • Baldoyle Bay, an important overwintering site for birds
  • Sluice Marsh, a 'National Heritage Area'
  • Hogweed management

Whether you're ready to lend a hand at one of the activities or have photos or articles to share about a recent event, here's the place to do it! You can get in touch by email or through our FaceBook page.



Beach Monitoring and Dune Regeneration

Fingal County Council invested a lot of money in dune protection in 2000 and installed metal fencing along the front to stop people from disturbing the dunes. Shortly afterwards the work was almost destroyed by a major storm, as illustrated in the photo.  After this upset some women from the local community decided to 'adopt' the beach.

We decided to monitor the sand levels and encourage dune regeneration. We have now taken sand level measurements every quarter for the last ten years.

We have worked with local schools and businesses on community service days to plant dune grasses.

Over the last ten years sand has accumulated in our dunes creating a new line of embryo dunes. We are awed by the progress which has been made but know that the beach and dunes are constantly vulnerable to storms, to teams training in the dunes and to vandals setting fire to the grasses.