Thousands flocked to Cork’s most popular beaches in July and August

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

It was a bumper summer for West Cork’s beaches with huge numbers visiting the Blue Flag beaches at Garrylucas and Garretstown near Kinsale during the hot weather of July and August.

Figures collected by Cork County Council from lifeguard staff show that 6,130 people visited Garretstown during the week of July 7 while 5,881 made the trip to the expansive sandy beach about 10 km from Kinsale during the week of August 11. The smaller Garrylucas beach, which sits alongside Garretstown, attracted 2,577 people during the same July week while 1,763 visited between August 11 and 17.

Visitor numbers fell off steeply as the summer petered out and the schools returned with only around 300 people coming to the two beaches on the weekend of August 30-31. Early June before the good weather really kicked off was also relatively quiet with around 400 people visiting the beaches over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

Garrylucas and Garretstown are among the jewels in the crown of Cork’s magnificent coast, and are popular with swimmers, surfers and sunbathers. They sit side-by-side near the Old Head of Kinsale and close to the village of Ballinspittle, famed for its moving statue back in the ‘80s.

Met Éireann has provisionally declared this summer as the warmest ever recorded in Ireland, with an average temperature of 16.19 °C, surpassing the previous hottest summer of 1995. August was ranked as the fourth warmest in records that go back to 1900.

"It hasn’t been particularly sunny during summer, but the dry soils from a warm and sunny spring, the heat domes over mainland Europe, periods of high-pressure dominance and the high sea surface temperatures around Ireland, have kept temperatures over the last three months consistently above average, especially at nighttime,” Met Éireann Climatologist Paul Moore said.

Garrylucas and Garretstown are among a dozen beaches guarded by Cork County Council’s Beach Lifeguard Teams during the summer. The 2025 lifeguard season has now ended successfully with no fatalities or serious injuries on the life-guarded beaches.