Damien Enright: Our sand dunes are threatened with disappearance

Human activity, wrecking the webs of marram roots beneath the sands isn't helping these precious barriers 

Sand dunes at Inchydoney beach in West Cork eroded by winter storms. We have a part to play in protecting them. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

When we were children on beach holidays, we ran our heedless ways through the knee-high marram grass of the sand dunes at Inchydoney Strand in West Cork. We little knew that we might have been wrecking the root systems of the grass that held them together. Still, year on year, they survived. We were few, and we were lightweight. It was before the age of universal motor cars and free-range mobility.

Since then, holidaymakers have multiplied by a factor of thousands, and the passage of adults, children and dogs, teenage campers, and midnight dune parties are wreaking havoc on these delicate ecosystems which we will sorely miss when they are gone. In Ireland, we don't have dunes except by the sea. They're another world for the landlocked soul.