Overview
Barrow Beach is the quiet southern end of Banna Strand – the same 10 km run of sand and dunes that stretches north to Ballyheigue – but hardly anyone walks this end, because the car park is small and the famous, lifeguarded stretch is further up. That’s the appeal. It sits about 13 km north-west of Tralee in County Kerry, on the headland shared with the Tralee Golf Club links, and it’s on the Wild Atlantic Way without any of the resort trappings. If you want a strand mostly to yourself and don’t mind bringing everything with you, this is the one.
The beach and dunes
The sand is backed by a system of dunes that’s protected as a Special Area of Conservation, which is why there’s nothing built here. The shifting sand shelters rare coastal plants and gives ground-nesting shorebirds somewhere to breed, so stay on the established paths through the dunes rather than cutting your own line. At low tide the flats open out considerably toward Barrow Harbour and Fenit.
One honest caution: like the rest of Tralee Bay, the tide here comes in fast over flat sand. Keep an eye on it, and check the times before you wander far out.
Barrow Harbour and the golf links
Beside the beach, Barrow Harbour is a tidal inlet that once did serious work as a port and a smuggling spot; the ruins of Fenit Castle still stand on Fenit Island across the water. On the headland itself is the Tralee Golf Club, an Arnold Palmer-designed links with cliff-top holes and long views over the bay. It’s a private club, but the setting is part of why this corner of Kerry looks the way it does.
Getting there and facilities
The beach is reached by local roads off the R558, about a 20-minute drive from Tralee. Parking is tight near the narrow entrance, so on a warm summer weekend, arrive early. Guests of Barrow House, the guesthouse nearby, have their own parking.
Don’t expect any facilities: there are no toilets, showers, changing areas or kiosks, and no lifeguards, so swimming and any water sports are at your own risk. The steady sea breezes in the bay draw the odd windsurfer, and sea anglers cast for bass and flatfish off the sandy channels, but for toilets and food you’ll want to drive on into Fenit.
Nearby
- Fenit: a working harbour village a short drive south-west, with a marina, a public beach and the start of the Tralee-Fenit Greenway.
- Banna Strand: the long strand runs north from here to Ballyheigue, with lifeguards in summer at the main stretch. This is where Roger Casement came ashore from a German submarine in the lead-up to the 1916 Easter Rising, and there’s a memorial to him behind the dunes.
- Tralee Golf Club: the Arnold Palmer links on the headland, for anyone with a tee time and a head for cliff-edge holes.