Three separate coastlines carry this list, and they do not join up quickly by road. North Kerry holds the long flat strands: Banna Strand runs about 12 km along Ballyheigue Bay behind dunes up to 12 metres high, with Barrow Beach at its southern tip beside Tralee Golf Club’s links and Ballyheigue village at the far end. Ballybunion sits further north again, twin Blue Flag beaches either side of a ruined castle, and it works best between April and September when the town is actually open.
The Dingle Peninsula takes up most of the middle of the list. Béal Bán is a sheltered mile of strand on Smerwick Harbour near Ballyferriter, with rock pools at one end. Brandon Bay and Castlegregory share the long sweep below Mount Brandon, sheltered by the Maharees sandspit into some of the most consistent windsurf and kitesurf water in the country. Coumeenoole, on the Slea Head Drive, is cupped between sheer cliffs and looks out to the Blaskets, but the water there is dangerous and it is a place to look rather than swim.
South of Dingle Bay the Iveragh entries are strung along the Ring of Kerry and the Skellig Ring: Ballinskelligs with its priory and castle tower, Derrynane where low tide opens a walk out to Abbey Island, Castlecove below Staigue Fort. Fenit is the exception to all the driving, reachable on the flat greenway out from Tralee.
A kilometre of Blue Flag sand on the Skellig Ring, backed by a medieval priory and a lone castle tower, with very dark night skies.
Twin Blue Flag beaches either side of a ruined castle, with two world-ranked links courses and Collins' seaweed baths on Ladies Strand.
Three kilometres of lifeguarded Blue Flag sand under a burnt-out castle shell, safe for family swimming and surfing rather than wild clifftop drama.
Twelve kilometres of dune-backed Blue Flag strand along Ballyheigue Bay, with free parking, summer lifeguards and the monument to Casement's 1916 landing.
The quiet southern tip of Banna, beside Tralee Golf Club's links and Barrow Harbour, worth the walk though there are no facilities at all.
27 of 28 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Ballinskelligs, kerry
Ballinskelligs is a scatter of Irish-speaking townlands on the western edge of the Iveragh Peninsula, tied together by a kilometre of Blue Flag sand and two sets of ruins – a medieval priory and a lone castle tower. It sits on the Skellig Ring, with a beach wheelchair in summer and some of the darkest night skies in the country.
Ballybunion, kerry
Ballybunion is a North Kerry seaside town built around three things on one headland: two world-ranked links golf courses, twin Blue Flag beaches either side of a ruined castle, and Collins' seaweed baths on Ladies Strand. It empties out in winter, so come between April and September when everything is actually open.
Ballyheigue, kerry
Ballyheigue is a north Kerry seaside village built around three kilometres of Blue Flag sand, the near end of a dune-backed strand that runs up to Kerry Head. It's a safe, lifeguarded family beach for swimming and surfing rather than a wild clifftop. Above it stands the burnt-out shell of Ballyheigue Castle – tied to the 1730 robbery of Danish silver from the wrecked Golden Lion – now ringed by a nine-hole golf course.
Banna Strand, kerry
Banna Strand runs about 12 km along Ballyheigue Bay, a Blue Flag beach backed by dunes up to 12 metres high. A stone monument 500 m south of the car park marks where Roger Casement came ashore from a German U-boat before the 1916 Rising. Lifeguards patrol June to August; parking is free year-round.
Barrow Beach, kerry
Barrow Beach is the southern tip of Banna Strand, the long dune-backed strand that runs north to Ballyheigue. It sits beside Tralee Golf Club's Arnold Palmer links, with protected dunes behind and Barrow Harbour's old smuggling inlet next door. Come for a walk, not for facilities – there are none.
Ballyferriter, kerry
Béal Bán is a sheltered, mile-long strand on Smerwick Harbour, near the Gaeltacht village of Ballyferriter, with rock pools at one end and Mount Brandon behind. The calm water makes it good for families and kite surfers, and it holds a Green Coast Award.
Brandon Bay, kerry
Brandon Bay is a long sweep of sand on the north of the Dingle Peninsula, sheltered by the Maharees sandspit into one of Ireland’s most consistent windsurf and kitesurf spots. Brandon Point, at the western end, is a first-rate seabird headland in autumn. You’ll need a car to reach it.
Brandon, kerry
Brandon is an Irish-speaking village on the north side of the Dingle Peninsula, sitting below Mount Brandon – one of the ten highest peaks in Ireland. Three routes climb the mountain from the Faha Grotto, while Brandon Bay, which hosted professional wave-sailing in the early 2000s, still draws windsurfers and kitesurfers.
Iveragh Peninsula, kerry
Castlecove's real draw is up the hill: Staigue Fort, an Iron Age ring fort whose mortar-free walls still stand 5.5m high, free to walk into. Below it, a sheltered white-sand strand and Westcove Harbour, where seals and otters show at low tide, make an easy stop on the Ring of Kerry.
Castlegregory, kerry
Castlegregory sits at the foot of the Maharees sandspit on the north of the Dingle Peninsula, where one of Ireland's longest beaches runs roughly 12 miles below Mount Brandon. A single stone arch beside the village SPAR is all that survives of the 16th-century Hoare castle Cromwell's forces razed in 1650. The Maharees dunes shelter rare Natterjack toads and some of the best surf and diving in Kerry.
Coumeenoole, kerry
Coumeenoole is a small beach of golden sand cupped between sheer cliffs at the western tip of the Dingle Peninsula, on the Slea Head Drive. It featured in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970) and looks out to the Blasket Islands. The water is dangerous, so this is a place to look rather than swim, with a short walk up to Dunmore Head, the most westerly point of mainland Ireland.
Derrynane Bay, kerry
Derrynane is a Blue Flag beach on the Iveragh Peninsula, a sheltered curve of golden sand backed by dunes. Time it for low tide and you can walk out to the monastic ruins on Abbey Island; above the bay sits Daniel O'Connell's house, and the whole area falls inside the Kerry Dark Sky Reserve.
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Charles Lindbergh's first sight of Europe in 1927 was Dingle Bay, the wide inlet between the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas. The 5 km strand at Inch draws the surfers; boats from Ventry and Dingle find dolphins, minke whales and the odd autumn humpback off the Blaskets.
Fenit, kerry
Saint Brendan the Navigator is said to have been born near this working fishing village, which the AA named Ireland's best beach for 2026. Cycle the flat greenway out from Tralee to the Blue Flag strand, take the boat to the Little Samphire Island lighthouse, or cross to the low-tide ruins of Fenit Island.
Glenbeigh, kerry
Glenbeigh sits at the foot of Seefin Mountain on Kerry's Iveragh Peninsula, a quieter stop on the Ring of Kerry than Killarney or Kenmare. Its draw is Rossbeigh Strand, a long Blue Flag sand spit, and the mountain stages of the Kerry Way that start from the village.
Inch, kerry
Inch Beach stretches five kilometres of golden sand along the Dingle Peninsula, backed by rolling dunes and framed by the Iveragh mountains. Lifeguarded in summer and popular with surfers, walkers and families, it offers free access and a range of watersports.
Maharees, kerry
The Maharees is a 5 km sand tombolo north of the Dingle Peninsula, with a Blue Flag beach that draws surfers, kitesurfers and divers. Offshore lie the Seven Hogs, the largest of which holds a 7th-century monastic ruin, and the fragile dunes shelter Ireland's rarest amphibian, the Natterjack toad.
Dingle Peninsula, kerry
Minard is a storm beach of huge rounded sandstone boulders below Minard Castle, a Fitzgerald tower house that Cromwell's forces blew up in 1650. Three storeys still stand. The boulders are 380-million-year-old fossilised desert dunes, and many of the Dingle Peninsula's Ogham stones were quarried from this shore.
Ballybunion, kerry
Nuns Beach is a small golden-sand cove below a ruined convent just north of Ballybunion, reached only by boat or a steep roped climb down the cliff. The nuns who lived above used it as their private bathing place until the late 1980s. Come at low tide, and think hard before taking the rope.
Glenbeigh, kerry
Rossbeigh is a seven-kilometre sandspit reaching into Dingle Bay just below Glenbeigh, on both the Ring of Kerry and the Wild Atlantic Way. Wide golden sand, lifeguarded summer swimming, dependable surf and beach horse-riding make it a versatile family stop, with a hill loop above for the views.
Atlantic coast, kerry
St. Finian’s Bay, known locally as The Glen, is an exposed crescent of sand halfway round the Skellig Ring, looking straight out at the Skellig Rocks. It has serious surf and serious rip tides, so it is one to watch rather than swim. Skelligs Chocolate and the Driftwood café sit a short walk from the pier.
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Tralee Bay is a shallow 285 km² inlet on the Kerry coast, ringed by over 60 km of sand including the Blue Flag beaches of Ballyheigue, Banna and Fenit. It is an internationally protected Ramsar wetland for wintering birds, and its seagrass beds and waters shelter some of Ireland's rarest sharks and skates.
Ventry, kerry
A long crescent of golden sand on a sheltered bay just west of Dingle, backed by dunes, a lake and reed swamp, and safe enough for small children. Lifeguarded May to September and Blue Flag every year, but the car park is tiny, so get there early.
Waterville, kerry
Waterville Beach curves along Ballinskelligs Bay on the Ring of Kerry, facing due west for the full Atlantic sunset. Charlie Chaplin holidayed here for ten summers, and his bronze statue stands on the promenade; after dark the beach sits inside a Gold Tier dark-sky reserve.
Tralee, kerry
Fermoyle, kerry
Inny Strand, kerry
Maharees Peninsula, kerry
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