Life’s an artificial beach as Bantry seeks to bathe

A FAMED harbour town is prepared to spend over €1m to provide an artificial beach.

A sandy strand is one of the high quality amenities lacking in the top tourist town of Bantry, experts have advised.

Investment in a beach facility would reap benefits to the community and the local economy, the Bantry Task Force was told.

Bordered by the Sheep’s Head and Beara peninsulas, the 23-mile-long sheltered deep water Bantry Bay does not have any sandy inlets. Locals and tourists in the Bantry area have to travel 50 miles to bathe at beach spots such as

Barleycove and Allihies. The community-based task force commissioned the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre at University College Cork to investigate the unique beach concept.

The researchers, headed by Prof Tony Lewis, responded positively.

The team found such an amenity could be built at a reasonable cost after examining two potential locations in the inner harbour, The Abbey and the Railway Pier.

They put forward seven technically feasible design options at the two sites. Businessman Donal Casey, who heads the task force, said EU funding would be essential to the project. An EU funding precedent for beaches was already established, he said, as Spain, Portugal and The Canaries had all benefited from similar artificial schemes.

Pointing to the local task force group’s record in providing community facilities, Mr Casey said: “Anything we set out to achieve we always succeed, the proposed beach scheme will not be an exception.

“Our strengths are based on good working relationships with the local community, government departments and other agencies, some outside the State, which support community-based initiatives.”

Over €40,000 has been expended to date on the proposed beach project with backing coming from groups such as West Cork Leader and the American Ireland Fund.