The Maharees
The Maharees is a tombolo, a bar of sand that tied a group of former offshore islands to the mainland and in doing so separated Brandon Bay from Tralee Bay. It runs about five kilometres north from the village and ends at Rough Point, looking out at the Seven Hogs. Dunes hold the southern half together; the northern end turns to earth and rock.
Three hamlets cluster at the top around Scraggane Bay: Fahamore, Kilshannig and Candiha. Fahamore has about fifty houses and a pub, and its pier takes something like twenty half-decked and decked boats through the summer, working lobster, crayfish, crab and salmon, much of it going to Spain and France. Naomhóg racing is held here each July. At the very top, above the bay, is the old graveyard at Kilshannig with its chi-rho cross slab.
The two bays give the place its character. One side or the other is nearly always sheltered, which is why windsurfers have known about this water for decades, and why the beaches on the Tralee Bay side are for swimming while the Brandon Bay side is for surf.
The facts
- Where
- Straight north out of Castlegregory village, 7.7km, about thirteen minutes and flat
- Villages
- Fahamore, Kilshannig and Candiha, around Scraggane Bay
- Beaches
- Magherabeg on the Tralee Bay side holds the Blue Flag and the lifeguards. More on the beaches.
- On the water
- Jamie Knox at Brandon Bay, 066 713 9411, and Waterworld at Scraggane Pier, diving since 1963. The full list.
- On foot
- The Maharees Heritage Trail, a ten-kilometre loop. Where it starts.
- Parking
- Very limited, informal, and restricted in places by erosion works. Observe the signs.
- Conservation
- Maharees Conservation Association
Good to know
There is one road in and out, and blown sand buries it. Between December 2015 and February 2016 the county council had to clear the same stretch at least twelve times. Drive it expecting sand in the bends, and never drive on the dunes.
The dune system has retreated more than forty metres in recent decades. The Maharees Conservation Association, formed in 2016 after the storms, has planted marram and built chestnut fencing to hold it together, at about twenty euro a metre. What they ask of visitors is short: keep off the dunes, camp only in the official sites, do not litter, and join a beach clean if you have an hour.
Parking is the practical constraint on a fine day. Arrive early, use the marked accesses, and do not park on the grass or the dune edge.
How we checked. Distances and village detail from castlegregory.ie and the Dingle Peninsula directory. Dune retreat, the road clearances and the association's founding from its own site and from the European Environment Agency's case study on the peninsula. Opening hours and prices on this coast change without notice, so ring before you travel. If anything here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.