There’s an abundance of clean outdoor swimming places in Loop Head, all of them untainted by crowds or pollution. You can choose from peaceful, sandy coves at Doonaha or Kilkee Bay, secluded shingle beaches such as Ross or Rinevella, or most famously, the vast, bejewelled rock pools of the Pollock Holes.
However, visitors should please bear in mind that wild swimming can be dangerous, and especially on Loop Head, where the Shannon meets the Atlantic. Any estuary can be a place of surprising currents, and the Shannon Estuary is no less so. The cliffs on the peninsula can make for dangerous swimming conditions and it can be it difficult for swimmers to get back out of the water.
Exercise care and common sense and, above all, don’t swim alone.
