Keel Strand

There are two distinct south-facing beaches near the western end of Achill Island. The larger one is Keel, shown here, with its long, broad sandy beach. It's a barrier, with dunes and large low, wetland areas to the landward.

AERIAL VIEW

This beach lacked the distinct coarse cobble berm we've seen on other beaches - at least from what I could see here at the western end. This makes sense, as I suspect those cobble berms require a more proximal source for those large stones - a smaller beach, closer to the sediment source, is a more likely candidate than this one. Like Keem Beach, in the next post.

Much of the beach to the east appeared to be backed by a well-developed, multi-tiered gravel berm, although it sort of petered out to the west, where the gravel was just spread across the sandy back beach, almost as if the result of a recent storm (but I don't really know).

It was windy, but there wasn't much surf, which was probably a good combination for both the beginning surfing class and the more experienced kiteboarders.