Stunning photo gallery captures natural beauty of Ireland’s coast
Photographer Chris Martin's image 'A Bit of a Pinch' was chosen as the overall winner of the 2026 Love Your Coast Photography Competition, hosted by Clean Coasts. See the gallery of 50 shortlisted images.
The photographers shortlisted in the 2026 Love Your Coast photography competition have brought great imagination and creativity to the images selected among this year’s finalists.
They bring just as much passion, however, to their goal of playing their part in protecting the environment that they capture with such beautiful imagery.
Hosted by Clean Coasts, the underlying motivation for taking these stunning images is to remind people that this natural beauty needs to be preserved for future generations.
“By entering the competition, photographers are not simply showcasing their skill and creativity; they are helping to raise awareness of the urgent need to safeguard Ireland’s coast and waterways for generations to come, the way Clean Coasts volunteers do every day,” say the competition’s organisers.
“In hosting the competition, which is now in its 17th year, we encourage photographers and coastal enthusiasts to contemplate this year’s theme of impact and how each of our actions can have both positive and negative impacts on our coastal environment.”
Click on the GALLERY button below to see the 50 images in Love Your Coast 2026:
The finalists in the competition compete for a total prize fund of €5,000. The Love Your Coast Photography Competition offers participants the opportunity to showcase their unique viewpoint of this impact across five specific categories.
These categories are: Coastal Landscape, People and the Coast, Source to Sea, Wildlife and the Coast, and Underwater.
This year’s overall prize went to Chris Martin for his image entitled ‘A Bit of a Pinch’, which also took first place in the ‘Wildlife and the Coast’ category. Chris captured the image of an otter with a brightly coloured edible crab in his mouth. The otter was in the River Lee in Cork.
Chris said that he followed the otter along the river one evening back in April, following his journey as he searched for food. When he found the crab, the otter quickly took his meal to a secluded spot under a bridge to protect himself from any potential attack from onlooking gulls.
Clean Coasts is an An Taisce programme that supports communities across the country as they strive to protect the Irish coast, waterways and all of the wildlife that it supports.
The images in the gallery above can also be viewed on the Clean Coasts website: cleancoasts.org
