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Tip of the moment

The best swim windows for your spot: sea state, tides, water temperature and safety, over 3 days.

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oswim informs, it guarantees nothing: the sea stays unpredictable. Getting in the water is your decision and your responsibility. When in doubt, don't swim; prefer lifeguarded areas.

Published by Mouveo — Vannes, France.

Forecasts Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0) · Beaches © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Donabate Beach — oswim

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Powered by Esri · Source: Esri, Vantor, Earthstar Geographics, and the GIS User Community

Donabate Beach · facing east

TomorrowWindow — with caution

Donabate Beach

Fingal · Leinster

Today's take

Window: 08:00–19:00, with caution — read the safety panel before you go.

Water temperature

15.1 °C

Verdict · Tomorrow

Pleasant

Underwater visibility

~3.3 m

satellite reading from 2 days ago

When to go

Good from 08:00 to 19:00 — best around 14:00.

You are

Are you there right now?

Two seconds: the sea, the water, the jellyfish.

72 h overview

6 am → 10 pm each day

06h08h10h12h14h16h18h20h22h

Tmrw

+2 d

+3 d

GlassyPleasantSportyRoughAvoidNot assessable

The wave models disagree about this day: depending on which one you believe, the sea is not in the same state. Read it as a range, not a promise.

Best windows

08:00 – 19:00Pleasant

Comfort hour by hour

Bar height = comfort level · assessed only over the spot's daylight hours (6 am → 10 pm).

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07

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09

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GlassyPleasantSportyRoughAvoidNot assessable

Sun11h 39m of daylight

06 h10 h14 h18 h22 h

Sunrise 07:24 · Solar noon 13:14 · Sunset 19:03

Wind

Safety

Water temperature · 14.9 – 15.0 °C

11–16 °C: peak cold-shock zone. Wetsuit mandatory, enter gradually (the first 90 seconds are critical), stay close to shore. If you panic: float on your back and breathe.

World Aquatics / World Triathlon thresholds · 31 °C ceiling (post-Fran Crippen), Ironman 28.8 °C · RNLI guidance

Post-rain pollution · 8 – 17.6 mm over 24 h

Heavy recent rain: the water washes roads, fields and car parks, overflows the sewer network, and all of it reaches the sea loaded with bacteria. Avoid swimming for 24–48 h, especially near river mouths.

Official sampling is weekly at best; between two samples, recent rain is the recognized warning signal (EEA)

Recommended gearWater 15.1 °C

Full 4:3 mm wetsuit, neoprene cap advised; gloves and booties depending on duration.

8° coldwetsuit advised28° warm

Neoprene cap

Pin colours:swimmablecautionnot advisedconditions not loaded yet

Beaches near Donabate Beach

oswim informs, it guarantees nothing: the sea stays unpredictable. Getting in the water is your decision and your responsibility. When in doubt, don't swim; prefer lifeguarded areas.

Forecasts come from ~8 km resolution models: very local effects (a sheltering pier, a lagoon pass) are not captured.

Sea-state data comes from a marine model cell about 5.8 km from this point — local nearshore conditions can differ.

Wave heights are significant heights: individual waves up to 2× this height still occur.

Four wave models are compared for this point: EWAM, GWAM, Météo-France WAM and ECMWF WAM.

Tide times derived from modelled sea level (± a few tens of minutes) — not official tide tables.

Missing data is shown as missing — never silently estimated.

Beach locations from OpenStreetMap — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Weather and marine data: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), wave models from the Deutscher Wetterdienst (CC BY 4.0). Forecasts are not guarantees. · Data fetched at 17:55 UTC

Water clarity generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information.

Windows, comfort score and verdicts are computed by oswim from this data — modified values, not the institutes' raw figures.

max 24 km/h

06 h10 h14 h18 h22 h

min 11 · max 24 km/h · south sector · gusts 45 km/h

UV indexmax 2 · low

06 h10 h14 h18 h22 h

Midday peak — protect your skin.

Tiderange 3.8 m

00 h06 h12 h18 h24 h

HW 01:28 · LW 07:18 · range 3.8 m

Thunderstorm · None forecast

No thunderstorms forecast.

World Triathlon: stop on lightning

Offshore wind · 11 – 37 km/h

No wind-driven offshore drift.

RNLI / lifeguard warning · measured drift (coastguard): 2–4 % of the wind · Beaufort scale

Visibility · 9 – 69 km

Good visibility.

Loss of bearings and collision risk

Jellyfish: no recent info. If you're there, tell us what you see — even “none” helps the next swimmer.

Gloves and booties per duration

In all cases: bright swim cap and tow float so boats can see you.

After the swim: change immediately, warm clothes and a hot drink — your body keeps cooling for 10–30 minutes (no scalding shower, no alcohol).

Consolidated ladder: World Aquatics / World Triathlon / FFTri rules + manufacturer thermal guides

Know this spot

Donabate's beach stretches wide and sandy between dunes and links golf courses, with Lambay Island rising on the horizon out to sea.The Irish Sea here runs cool and brisk, perfect for an invigorating swim well away from crowds.

Beach

Faces east

Lifeguarded beach

Depth as you head out: 800 m → 1.5 m

Modelled depths (EMODnet, the European seabed model), stated without the tide: at low water there is less. A swimming bearing, never a navigation aid.

Nobody looks after this beach yetKnow it by heart? Take it: your first name shows here, and nobody but you writes the locals' word.

The beach is easily reached from Donabate village, with parking near the seafront.

Worth knowing

This Fingal shoreline, shaped by the tides, quietly supports a rich marine life, from mussels and whelks to skates just offshore.

Spot profile pending on-site verification.

Take this beach

Discover

What you can genuinely meet swimming here.

0 / 7

Sharks & rays

0 / 1

Shells

0 / 4

Crabs, shrimps & mantis shrimps

0 / 1

Jellyfish, corals & anemones

0 / 1

Species typical of this region · photos from Wikimedia Commons and iNaturalist (free licences)