Dollar Bay takes its name from a cargo of Spanish silver coins buried in the sand here in 1765. It’s a small cove of golden sand on the western side of Wexford’s Hook Peninsula, set below grassy cliffs that curl round to shelter it from the prevailing wind. From the beach you look west across the mouth of Waterford Harbour to the Waterford shore. It sits about 8km north of Hook Lighthouse, on the quiet road that runs down the peninsula from Duncannon.
The silver dollars
As the story goes, the Earl of Sandwich was sailing home from the Canary Islands in 1765 with a cargo that included Madeira wine, silk and a fortune in Spanish dollars – the ‘pieces of eight’ of pirate legend – along with some gold. Four of the crew, led by the boatswain Peter McKinlie, murdered everyone else aboard, took to the ship’s boat with the treasure and rowed ashore near here, around Broomhill Point. Weighed down by the coin, they buried most of it in the sand and carried off only what they could manage. They didn’t stay free long. Word of four sailors spending Spanish dollars around New Ross reached the authorities, and all four were caught, tried and hanged in Dublin the following year. The old accounts don’t agree on whether every coin was ever recovered – which is half the appeal of standing here. The dollars gave the bay its name.
Getting there and down to the sand
The turn is signposted off the Duncannon–Hook Head road, a few minutes south of Duncannon. The lane is narrow, and the parking at the end is informal and fits only a handful of cars, so it fills fast on a warm weekend. From there a short path drops down to the beach – roughly 40m over rough ground – so wear shoes you can grip in. This is not a drive-on strand like Duncannon’s; you walk down. The sign at the road points to it as a sea-angling beach rather than a swimming one, and it’s easy to sail past, so watch for it.
The swim and the beach
The cove shelves gently into shallow, clear water, and the cliffs on either side take the edge off the wind, which makes it a calm place for a swim on a settled day. It works at most states of the tide, unlike beaches that all but vanish at high water. It stays quiet – you’ll often share it with a couple of walkers and no one else. Booley Bay, the next cove north, is much the same and just as empty.
There are no facilities at all: no toilets, no lifeguard, no shop, no bin. Bring water and take your rubbish home. The nearest pint and plate of food is the Templars Inn at Templetown, up the road; for a shop or public toilets you’re looking at Fethard-on-Sea, about ten minutes off, or back to Duncannon.
A tip before you go
Check the tide and the wind before you set off – the cove is sheltered, but this is open sea with no one watching it. Firm shoes make the path down easy; sandals don’t. And slow down to find it: the sign is small and low, set back from the Duncannon–Hook Head road near Templetown, so ease off as you pass or you’ll drive straight by.