Keem Bay in Mayo named best 'wild swimming spot'

Wed, 10 Aug, 2022 - 11:49

Olivia Kelleher

Keem Bay, in Achill Island in Co Mayo, has been named the best "wild swimming spot" in the UK and Ireland in a survey carried out by British resuable bottle company, Ocean Bottle.

Five other spots in Ireland featured in the top twenty including Trá an Dóilín (Coral Strand) and Dog's Bay in Connemara which came in sixth and thirteenth, Doeey Beach in Co Donegal (9th), Curracloe in Co Wexford (12th) and Enniscrone Beach in Co Sligo. (4th)

Keem Bay is a blue flag beach and was formerly the site of a basking shark fishery. Last year the area was listed on the best beaches in the world list by global travel site Big 7 travel last year. It is a breathtaking rural and sheltered beach surrounded by cliffs located past Dooagh village.

Ocean Bottle has put Keem Bay on the top of the list for wild swimming because of its "ultra clean waters" and "beautiful rural and picturesque location."

In making their determinations, Ocean Bottle examined water quality data from 800 waterways across the UK and Ireland. It drew on the latest year of water samples, analysing levels of E.coli in samples sourced from governmental sites, incuding the Environmental Protection Agency.

The company then cross-referenced the results with Google reviews to establish the cleanest and most popular spots. Any location with less than a hundred reviews was removed from the final ranking.Overall winner, Keem Bay, received an average rating of 4.9 out of five with over 1600 reviews from the public.

Meanwhile, in the UK four beaches in Cornwall found their wall in to the top twenty. Two beaches in Pembrokeshire in Wales came in the second and fourth spot whilst Mwnt Beach in Ceredigion was third.

Ocean Bottle also had a listing for "best hidden gem" beach with Alliebrack/Silverhill Beach in Galway earning a five star rating thanks to its white sandy beach and clean waters. In England, the best hidden gem spot for swimming is Polstreath beach, near Mevagissey in Cornwall, with a rating of four stars.