Wicklow/Dublin Beaches for riding

dave66

Just wondering if anyone can suggest beaches around Wicklow/Dublin where horse riding is permitted. Ideally somewhere that there's good parking & it's easy to turn with a horse box. My Daughter (and a friend) want to do an early morning ride. We're based near Enniskerry so Wickow would be our first choice.

mariannewims

It's probably too far for you but we go to Donabate beach and it's lovely. Good parking/turning facilities and a lovely long beach for a gallop. You have to be off by 11am in June, July and August but can ride later than that the rest of the year.

Anastazia

Brittas Bay is a good beach, i think you have to be off by 10am in summer, but there is parking etc:)

dave66

Thanks mariannewims and Anastazia,

Turns out that it's about 50Km to Donabate and 52Km to Brittas Bay, so pretty much the same distance, but I think Brittas would be a "nicer" drive as wouldn't have 3 lane M50 & M50/M1 Junction to contend with.

I think I'll take a spin to Brittas without the horse box to check it out and get a feel for what it'd be like with the box hitched up.

Thanks again,

Dave

dave66

In a fit of madness I've agreed to bring my daughter and a friend to Brittas beach this weekend :eek:

Just spoke to Wicklow County Council and they confirmed that in May horses are permitted on the beach between 9pm and 10am. But they can't tell me about the car park and as to whether or not it's accessible for horseboxes and if it's permitted to park horseboxes there.

Has anyone been to Brittas with a horsebox?

Anastazia

Hiya,

If your coming of the n11 and turning at Jack whites way, you'll arrive at brittas bay with the north dublin city council right in front of you, so if you then turn left, about 200 meters down there's and inlet in the road where I've seen a few horse boxes park.. Then you can just hack back doen the road and go to the beach through the car park entrance!! Hope this helps!:):)
PM me if you want to clarify directions...:rolleyes:

dave66

Anastazia wrote: »

Hiya,

If your coming of the n11 and turning at Jack whites way, you'll arrive at brittas bay with the north dublin city council right in front of you, so if you then turn left, about 200 meters down there's and inlet in the road where I've seen a few horse boxes park.. Then you can just hack back doen the road and go to the beach through the car park entrance!! Hope this helps!:):)
PM me if you want to clarify directions...:rolleyes:

Anastazia,

Many thanks for that, just took a look at street view, there are double yellow lines all along the road feckers, they allow horse riding on the beach, it looks great in the tourism photos but they don't seem to make it too easy to actually do. I may try using the car park.

Dave

Wicklowandy

Take a right not a left at the junction, around 200 yards on the right you can safely stop with a horse box

Not ranting, but if you go to Brittas, please try to be responsible with your horses leavings:)

Anastazia

yeah sorry I meant right... try this link:

https://maps.google.ie/maps/ms?msid=215995748619917889930.0004dcc0fd1832aedd185&msa=0&ll=52.870548,-6.066167&spn=0.000976,0.002481&iwloc=0004dcc1039c795943d7b

dave66

Ah, thanks for that, looks much better, even though there are double yellow lines

dave66

Well we went to the beach yesterday, however it did not go as planned, a believe me there was lots of planning.

I agreed to bring them to Brittas and being a bit of stickler for doing things right and within the law, I decided the best thing to do was go down to Brittas on Saturday evening and checkout parking etc. Go down, found the layby that Anastazia had mentioned. I was a little concerned that if there were cars there on Sunday morning it could make turning a little difficult (I'm a novice with horse box), so went to car park, there was a contact number on the sign for the car park (about getting unclamped) called and spoke to a very nice lady who told me there'd be no problem using the car park early in the morning. So everything was organised and set for Sunday morning.

Got to the yard bright and early, horses groomed, travel boots on, filled lots of 2L/5L bottles with water for the horses, coolers, tack, hats. Wicklowandy, will be please the heard we had pooper scooper & bags packed to remove the horse's "leavings". We hitched up and off we set, along the N11 we went, past Bray and through Glen of the Downs, then just as we're approaching the Kilcoole exit I notice the car losing power and the temperature rising rapidly. Off the N11 and onto the the Kilcoole road we went (slowly) found a place to pull in, open bonnet and find expansion tank for radiator is dry. Time to use some of the water (thankfully we had loads), car "drank" 6 liters. I informed riders that Brittas is off but said we'd go to Greystones as it was just down the road.

We were blessed, lovely parking spot just beside the people's park, horses out, tacked up, poop cleaned of road & path and off to the beach. Horses were lead onto the beach & then mounted, I followed. As I was walking on to the beach there was a smart arse with his dog (not on a leash) making snide comments about horses being on the beach and that one of them had just produced some "leavings" on and on he went, not knowing I was with the riders. Couldn't take it anymore, and told him, we had read the bye-laws, contacted council and knew it was permitted to ride on beach, that we had to remove waste (which we were equipped to do) and that horses must be kept under control, we were complying with all rules. I also mentioned that under the bye-laws he was also required to keep his dog that was running lose ahead of him should be under control.

The riders are horses enjoyed the beach, but it really isn't a great beach for riding, certainly not good for anything other than walk or a very short trot. The surface is very loose and horses find it hard going. The other people, especially children seemed to be delighted at the sight of horses. Both horses are very calm and so a few children got to say "hello". Poop was scooped, back to box and horses watered and back into the box. Think we might have given local residents something to talk about for the day as it seemed that every car slowed & opened windows to see the horses being loaded.

We had to make 3 stops on the way back to the yard, to check car & top up water. Finally got to the yard and I was wrecked from stress of it all.

So riders & horses got to a beach, I got ulcers and we didn't make it to Brittas. Checked car today, seems the problem was all down to a €8 cap for the expansion tank being faulty.

We'll definitely head to Brittas in a few weeks.

mariannewims

Sorry to hear you'd such a dramatic day despite all your planning!
At least the guys got to ride, next time Brittas
I hope your daughter knows what a legend of a Dad she has going to so much trouble for her to enjoy a nice beach ride :-p

dave66

mariannewims wrote: »

Sorry to hear you'd such a dramatic day despite all your planning!
At least the guys got to ride, next time Brittas

Definitely Brittas next time

mariannewims wrote: »

I hope your daughter knows what a legend of a Dad she has going to so much trouble for her to enjoy a nice beach ride :-p

She should know, I keep telling her

niamh o'malley

If you want to push on for another half hour, the Newtown/Oldbawn beach on the south side of Ballygarrett in Wexford is enormous (about 5 miles long at least), more or less wild, and the laws there are fairly ...relaxed. Tons of point to pointers gallop there in the winter, and there are also tracks in the dunes, as well as a 1m4 gallop at the back of the beach. The "car park" is hardened sand and potholes and people are not only rare but well used to horses on the whole. The beach is also extremely wide so that there is no risk of interference. Nobody will bother you there.