Although most of the time to take photographs all I have to do is turn up on a beach and take photographs of kitesurfers, every once in a while I decide to do something a little different. That takes some planning sometimes, no planning other times. I’ve a project on the go at the moment which required me to go and find some suitable backdrops and this is why on Sunday I was checking out beach locations in Dublin. Admittedly I forgot to check out the tide times first and wound up checking out locations that were neatly protected by the incoming and very high tide.
I wound up, at different times of the day, in Blackrock and Sandymount. I was also in Dun Laoghaire but more of that later.
This is from Sandymount and
this is from Blackrock.
I live on Dublin’s northside, close to Dollymount Strand. I lived in Portmarnock for a while. None of the northside beaches have anything much in the way of development compared to what the southside used to have. What the southside has now is quite a bit of dereliction. I believe Blackrock Baths were still open up to 30 years ago. Sandymount I’m not too sure about. I did some googling on Blackrock when I started doing some research for this project. I wouldn’t mind a trip around there but access is very difficult. It’s clearly not impossible because the place is covered in graffitti but on Sunday I wasn’t going in.
Sandymount’s baths I didn’t know about. I don’t know how long they’ve been derelict but I gather it’s closer to 90 years.
In addition to them, you also have the derelict baths in Dun Laoghaire which I believe were still in use during the 90s but I could be wrong on that. I had a look at them on Sunday evening. Some of the research I did on them indicates they are probably in a worse and less safe state than Blackrock.
What irks me is that these three baths are located in beautiful locations in Dublin. What I could find out about Dun Laoghaire indicates that prior to being abandoned, they were a superb facility. Now, they’re just another piece of dereliction on the seafront. Both links here point to Abandoned Ireland by the way.
People still swim in Blackrock next to the bath complex. At least two people were there on Sunday at high tide when I was checking out the place. As for Dun Laoghaire, they are being allowed to decay while there is ongoing political wrangling over what to do with the site. There was talk of multistory carparks, apartment blocks, hotels. There’s a really nice looking (albeit probably very fragile) building on the road leading into the baths but I can’t see it being saved if any development goes on there. But there seem to be wider issues around amenities planning in Dun Laoghaire anyway.
Sandymount has also been the subject of arguments. At least one Green Party rep has voiced the view that no one sees the concrete remains of the baths as an eyesore which strikes me as odd. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that there used to be a lot more development there and that like Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire, the powers that be are too busy infighting about what’s best to do than to actually do anything at all.
If I were to dare make a suggestion, I’d demolish Sandymount Baths. And I am not sure I’d restore Blackrock as a swimming pool complex either but, possibly look at the possibility of putting a municipal sailing club/watersports centre. And I’d put some kind of tearooms on the site of Dun Laoghaire Baths. It would be a fantastic location for a restaurant-come-café
I can’t see any of this happening however because both the relevant councils and most of the developers in the country are flat broke. So I suspect all we will see are changing colours in the graffiti and increased dereliction.
