Coumeenoole Strand

Coumeenoole Beach is located just north of Slea Head, at the western end of the Dingle Peninsula. This is a fascinating landscape, with stone walls marching high up the steep hills and jagged rocks extending offshore. It might have been more fascinating had our early September visit not been on so gray a day - although I suspect that's pretty common.

Coomeenoule is a large pocket beach, extending across the strike of steeply dipping sedimentary units, which jut out across the upper beach.  The AERIAL VIEW shows this much better than my photographs. 

Whether this is a strand or a beach sort of depends on the tide (and whether one has strong feelings about the difference between the terms "strand" and "beach"). On lower tides, the lower beach extends across the entire end of the cove, but when the water is higher (like during our visit), only the westernmost segment is exposed.

Even this part would be hard to get to were it not for a road that winds down to the water (most people park above, but some folks insisted on driving all the way down).

I believe these rocks all belong to the lower Devonian Dingle Group, which is part of, or closely associated with, the old Red Sandstone - one of Europe's more famous rock formations.