Search Results for 'Mayo beaches'

Ten beaches in Mayo retained their blue flag status this year, it was announced by An Taisce this week. However, due to the severe storm damage inflicted on the county in the post Christmas storms, two beaches have lost their blue flag. Both Mulranny and Bertra, which are very popular beaches, lost their blue flag status because of the storm damage. The ten beaches in Mayo that retained their blue flags were Dooega, Carrowmore, Clare Island, Ross (Killala), Golden Strand, Mullaghroe, Silverstrand (Dugort), Keel, Elly Bay and Keem.

The Mayo County Council has reached an agreement with An Taisce that beaches at Dooega and on Clare Island which get relatively little use will have lifeguard cover at the weekends only. Martin Keating, acting director of services for Mayo County Council, was giving a report on the Blue Flags awarded to beaches in Mayo. He told the meeting that in order to keep a Blue Flag a beach must have an adequate number of life guards on duty, but with some beaches having very low usage there was a difficulty in life-guarding them. Therefore the council came to an agreement with An Taisce for this summer season to have lifeguards on duty at Dooega and Clare Island at weekends only, but both beaches would be monitored and re-assessed at the year end with the other beaches.

The Environmental Protection Agency is advising people in Mayo to check bathing water quality this summer using the Splash website, www.bathingwater.ie

Parents of secondary school children have been asked to supervise their children by a senior council official following incidents of public concern at Mayo beaches.

The failure of Ross beach in Killala to meet the required EU bathing water standards comes as no surprise according to Fine Gael councillor Jarlath Munnelly who said it was a direct result of the failure to provide a sewage treatment in the town. Apart from Ross beach in Killala, there was good news for the vast majority of the beaches in Mayo which were included in the report. There were 15 Mayo beaches in the county tested, with Ross beach being the only one to come in with a poor result. Old Head in Louisburgh had a sufficient water quality status, while the 13 others in many of the tourist hotspots in the county were all found to have a good standard of water quality.

Bathing waters in Mayo are among the cleanest in Ireland according to a report published this week.

Mayo has topped the poll for the highest number of blue flags awarded to any one county in Ireland this summer.