Online Petition Calls on Local Authority to Buy Storied Property Overlooking Famous ‘Forty Foot’ Swimming Spot

18th August 2022

The online petition calling on DLRCoCo to buy the Battery has garnered hundreds of signatures thus far

More than 400 people have signed a petition calling on Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to buy the Battery above the Forty Foot in Sandycove.

The three-bedroom home created on the site of a former Dublin Bay military installation has been on the market since last month with a price tag of €3 million, as Irish Times Property reports.

Local campaigners have put up posters locally with a link to their petition, which suggests that DLRCoCo could purchase the property to “provide space and facilities” for bathers at the famed swimming spot, while also “serving to protect our historical and architectural heritage”.

The Battery with its old fortifications next to the famed Forty Foot swimming hole | Credit: Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty Dalkey

Built from Dalkey granite, the Battery has a military history that extends from the early 1800s until the Emergency during the Second World War. It passed from State hands into private ownership in 1955, when it was subsequently transformed into a characterful family home.

The campaign says: “We have a wonderful opportunity to return the Battery to public ownership and for the council to acquire the space it needs to develop vital facilities, meet its own objectives for creating suitable outdoor amenities that promote community health and wellbeing and to preserve and protect our architectural and historical heritage and our environment.”

One of the posters taped up locally with a link to the petition | Credit: Afloat.ie

Despite the Forty Foot’s enduring popularity for bathers, campaigners point out that it “lacks many basic facilities” such as a dedicated lifeguard station with first aid, toilets and showers, drinking water and a “warm safe space” for cold-water swimmers.

For more on the campaign, see the petition on Change.org.

Published in Forty Foot Swimming

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Forty Foot Swimming Spot on Dublin Bay

The 'Forty Foot' is a rocky outcrop located at the southern tip of Dublin Bay at Sandycove, County Dublin from which people have been swimming in the Irish Sea all year round for 300 years or more. It is popular because it is one of few spots between Dublin city and Greystones in County Wicklow that allows for swimming at all stages of the tide, subject to the sea state.

Forty Foot History

Traditionally, the bathing spot was exclusively a men's bathing spot and the gentlemen's swimming club was established to help conserve the area.

Owing to its relative isolation and gender-specific nature it became a popular spot for nudists, but in the 1970s, during the women's liberation movement, a group of female equal-rights activists plunged into the waters and now it is also open to everyone and it is in the control of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Many people believe that swimming in extremely cold water is healthy and good for the immune system.

Is it safe to swim at the Forty Foot?

The Forty-Foot is a great place to swim because there is always enough water to get a dip but like all sea swimming, there are always hazards you need to be aware of. For example, a lot of people like to dive into to the pool at the Forty-foot but there are submerged rocks that can be hazardous especially at low water. The Council have erected signs to warn people of the underwater dangers. Other hazards include slippy granite cut stone steps that can often be covered with seaweed and of course marine wildlife including jellyfish that make their presence felt in the summer months as do an inquisitive nearby Sandycove seal colony.