MAYO.MESurfing photos and reports from Easkey, Ennisconre, Kilcummin Harbour, Elly Bay, Carrowiniskey and Achill
March brings both the promise of summer and sharp reminders of winter. Icy cold north westerlies, not unexpected here in mid-March, brought snow to the mountain tops ahead of Storm Gareth. And so an unusually mild winter gave way to three days of mad March weather.
Hunched down, seeking shelter behind a tall boulder from the bitingly cold wind and rain, I watched the surfers, a few hundred metres off Kilcummin pier, bobbing up and down in a wild sea – their chase for the perfect wave had brought them to North Mayo.
Standing in the safety of Killerduff, watching the awesome power of Mayo’s Wild Atlantic waves crashing over Downpatrick Head, got me thinking of the terrifying conditions only seafarers witness as they work the high seas to earn a precarious livelihood.
Before setting off for Enniscrone I had to use a spatula to scrape the layers of ice off the car windscreen. It was showing 1 degree Celsius on the car monitor and the road from Ballina was icy and dangerous.
I’m not sure when Easkey became one of the hottest surfing locations in Europe. Certainly not as far back as the 15th century when the O’Dowd clan of Tireragh ruled the roost from Rosslee Castle, overlooking one of the two reef breaks that make Easkey a surfer’s paradise.
Summer is perfect for exploring and enjoying Mayo’s wonderful coastline which is dotted with some of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the world. Indeed, there is hardly a weekend in the year when it’s not possible to head off to walk a beach or find a hidden cove to explore and marvel at the breathtaking […]
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