Overview
Shenick Island (Irish: Oileán na Sionnach, ‘fox island’) lies just east of Skerries in County Dublin, close enough to read from the town’s shorefront. Four people lived here in 1841; nobody has since. BirdWatch Ireland bought the island in 1987 and has run it as a wildlife reserve ever since, so what you get now is grey seals hauled out on the western side, seabirds nesting on the low ground, and a Martello tower standing over the lot of it. On a clear day the Rockabill lighthouse shows up out to sea behind it.
If you only do one thing here, it’s the walk itself: getting out and back across the sandbank at the right state of the tide is most of the point.
Tides and how to reach it
The whole trip hinges on the tide. Shenick is joined to the mainland by a sandbank that only surfaces around low water, and it comes into its own at spring tides – the walk across the sand and mud takes roughly ten minutes each way. The window is short and the sea in this stretch of the coast turns quickly, so this is not a place to lose track of time.
A few honest notes before you go:
- Check a proper tide table and give yourself a clear hour either side of low water. Getting the timing wrong here means a wait, or worse.
- Wear boots you don’t mind getting wet. The sandbank can be soft and slippery, with pools left behind by the ebb.
- It is not a crossing for young children or anyone unsure on tidal ground.
- This is a bird reserve, so leave the dog at home.
The tower and the shore
The path off the sandbank leads straight to the Martello tower, one of the chain thrown up in the early 1800s to watch the Irish Sea. It is worth a proper look up close: the walls are mostly local limestone, with a few blocks of granite carted up from Dalkey, all rough-cut and finished in a pebbledash render that is now crumbling off in patches. The lower floors stand open to the weather, but the shell has held.
Beyond the tower it is a low, exposed island where the wind is rarely off entirely – good conditions for photography when early or late light catches the sand and the tower’s pale walls.
History
The name comes from the Irish for fox. For most of the 19th and early 20th centuries Shenick was a working part of the local coast, and farmers gathered seaweed off it – woar, in the local word – to spread on their land. That right turned into a decades-long row known locally as the ‘seaweed war’: from 1878 the landlord Ian Hamilton tried to charge for access and even built a wall to block the harvesters, and the dispute dragged on until 1896. Seaweed gathering carried on well into the last century before the island passed into conservation hands in 1987.
Wildlife
- Seals – grey seals haul out on the western shore, most reliably from autumn into winter, though small groups rest on the rocks year-round.
- Birds – the grassy slopes hold breeding colonies of gulls and fulmars, and the surrounding flats draw waders such as oystercatchers, curlews and turnstones on migration.
- Ground – salt-marsh plants and coarse coastal grasses hold the sandbank and the island’s low interior together.
The reserve is unstaffed. Stay off the nesting areas, keep your distance from the seals, and take everything back with you.
Practical information
- Entry: free, and no booking – the tide is the only gatekeeper.
- Facilities: none on the island. Use the toilets, cafés and free car parks in Skerries before you cross.
- Bring: windproof and waterproof layers, sturdy footwear, water and binoculars; a telephoto lens earns its place for the seals and birds.
- Best time: early on a spring-tide morning, for the calmest light and the most reliable crossing.
Nearby
- Ardgillan Castle – a coastal estate with walled gardens and walking trails, a short drive south towards Balbriggan.
- Balbriggan – a seaside promenade and more places to eat, a little further up the coast.
- Burrow Beach – a long sandy strand for a post-crossing picnic.
Check the tide table first, time your walk for the hour around low water, and you can be out at the tower and back with the seals still on the rocks.