Belmullet Tidal Pool

The Belmullet Tidal Pool is an 18-metre man-made sea-water swimming pool on Shore Road in Belmullet, the main town of the remote Erris district in northwest Mayo, on the sheltered eastern side of the Mullet Peninsula on Blacksod Bay. It was built in 1984 — designed by a local engineer, Paddy McManamon, and funded by the women of the Belmullet Swimming Club, who wanted a safe bathing place of their own — and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024.

The pool fills with clean Atlantic salt water and holds water at every state of the tide, with a deep end (2 m), a shallow end (1.2 m) and a toddler pool, plus parking, toilets and seasonal lifeguards. It is free and open all year, and it is the social heart of the town's swimming community: locals of every age gather here daily, in all weathers, for a dip.

Belmullet and the Mullet Peninsula are among the least-visited corners of Ireland — a Gaeltacht of beaches, machair grassland, dunes and huge Atlantic skies, with Blue Flag strands at Elly Bay and Mullaghroe, the Inishkea Islands offshore, and Blacksod Lighthouse (famous for its part in the D-Day weather forecast) at the southern tip. The tidal pool is an easy, free stop and a real taste of local life — bring a towel.