Rosmoney is where Mayo Sailing Club keeps its boats: more than a hundred of them moored across the sheltered channels at the east end of Clew Bay, which makes this one of the busier small harbours on the Mayo coast. It’s a working sailing base about 8 km west of Westport, not a sightseeing stop. Unless you’re sailing, booked on a watersports trip to Collanmore Island, or launching your own boat, there isn’t much reason to make the drive. If you are, the harbour’s shelter is the whole point.
The sailing club and harbour
Mayo Sailing Club, founded in 1976 and settled at Rosmoney since 1983, runs dinghy and cruiser racing and junior training out of a clubhouse with changing rooms, a bar and a boat shed. Membership runs from around €100 a year for juniors and students to €395 for a family, and the club’s five-evening Try Sailing course (€195 in 2026) is the usual way in for beginners.
The anchorage north of Rosmoney Point is well sheltered, with protection from all quarters. A floating pontoon, opened in 2013 about 30 m off the permanent pier, lets crews get on and off their boats safely and supplies water and power; the slipway handles smaller craft. Anchoring and berthing at the pier are free.
Out to Collanmore Island
Without a boat, the pier is the jumping-off point for the Adventure Islands. A high-speed rib runs from the pontoon across to Collanmore Island – home to just five people at the 2022 census – where the crew set up guided sea kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, powerboat safaris and raft-building, with all the gear provided. Trips run through the season; book directly with the operator on 086 2518252 or through their website.
Getting in by water
Approaching Rosmoney means threading the drumlin islands that give Clew Bay its lumpy, half-drowned look, the remains of glacial hills. The final run into the harbour through the Sruhnameel Channel is narrow, about 1.7 m at low water, so first-timers are better off arriving in daylight. A starboard-hand buoy marks a drying rock about 200 m east of the entrance, and the safe water favours the Collanmore side of the channel.
The old coastguard station
Above the pier stands the old Rosmoney Coastguard Station, built in 1875–76 to a design by Enoch Trevor Owen. In 1922, during the Civil War, it was taken by National Army forces.
Practical information
By car – From Westport, follow the N59 west, turn off at the Rosmoney sign and follow the local signs to Mayo Sailing Club. There’s free parking at the pier. Eircode F28 CF95.
By train – Westport is the end of the line from Dublin Heuston; a taxi from the station to the pier is roughly €15 and takes about 10 minutes.
Contact – For membership or courses, see the Mayo Sailing Club website or email info@mayosailingclub.com. The club runs its own anemometer, handy for a real-time wind check before you head out.
For supplies, Westport is about ten minutes back with supermarkets, chandlery and medical services, and it makes the obvious base if you’re sailing out of Rosmoney for more than a day.