More areas in West could do with tidal pools

Every place by the sea in the West should have an outdoor tidal pool like they have in Belmullet. That tidal pool, located along the Shore Road, has been around for over 40 years. It is an absolutely fantastic amenity and resource.

If you doubt me, go down to Belmullet on a summer’s day, swing down by the pool, and have a look. You will see people of all ages having a wonderful - and safe - time.

The facility is extremely well maintained. It is life guarded at appropriate times by responsible and professional young people, doing a superb job which will stand them in good stead for their future careers. Above all it is a focal point for joy and fun. It is a swimming pool in the sea for goodness sake. What’s not to like?

A tidal pool is a simple idea. It is a concrete tub, set along the coastline of the ocean, which fills up with water at high tide. You then stick a plug into it and you have a swimming pool full of ocean water, even as the water around it recedes at low tide.

It is a brilliant bit of infrastructure. Belmullet is blessed to have it and seeing how well it is used, they know it. Killala, Newport, Westport, Louisburgh and Achill are all obvious places which should have one.

Why would a built tidal pool add so much to those places? Any number of reasons.

The first is safety. Sea swimming is a gorgeous activity but one where you must be very careful. It involves grappling with uneven surfaces and the occasional rock or stone, or encountering some other creature that lives full time in the sea. Even people with experience of swimming can be wary of trying out a new place to swim, which can be a barrier to visitors to our region trying out the water.

And while you cannot be absolutely sure that there will be no jellyfish in a tidal pool, the chance is much less than it is in the open water, plus it’s far easier to fish them out. With swimmers all over the West reporting more jellyfish in the water each year - climate change? - this is not a small consideration.

The other problem the pool fixes is the challenge of swimming on a choppier day. There are many lovely warm days when the water is just that bit too rough for many to feel comfortable getting in. A tidal pool is a breakwater so even though the ocean around you might be a little rough, you can get in without a bother. And swimming in Belmullet while the spray from the ocean splashes against the exterior wall of the pool - completely safely - is itself great fun.

The crucial element they address is the best bit. As Cúchulainn taught us, it is hard to master the tide. How many lovely summer days will you see where it is low tide most of the day time? We get few enough of those good days truth be told, and it is a curse for the swimmer when the tide is out and the sun shining. While many places along our coastline have natural tidal pools, they can’t stop the tide. The built tidal pool fixes that problem for you. To see the pool in Belmullet full with water while the tide is away out is a simple marvel. As it could be for every other community that currently doesn’t have one.

Are they expensive to build? The truth is I don’t know. I am sure there would be a bit of engineering and design to get the thing in the right place. You would also need to ensure you have the parking and other facilities around that its enormous popularity would require. The Belmullet one is marvellous but it would benefit - as many other places would - from having a built toilet facility.

But ultimately a tidal pool is a concrete bath with a plug in it. We are not talking about the Taj Mahal here.

Building more pools would be a relatively simple win for our tourist offer. But it wouldn’t just benefit tourists. Everyone benefits from a facility like this. The local kids can go down every day during the summer. It gives them something to do that is healthy and good for them. People after work can go down on a summer’s evening and lose all their worries for a short and blissful time. Older people can head down and socialise and keep active and do their bones and bodies and minds the world of good.

There is another reason to build more in my view. If we do, and more tourists and local residents use them, voices will grow louder when the pools need to be shut because the water quality isn’t good enough. It is past time that those who use the water are heard more than those whose activities cause it to be unfit for humans to get into it.

Because there is a hard-nosed economic aspect to all this too. Tourists and visitors to the region would be thrilled by the thought of having a dip in a tidal pool. The marketing value alone - imagine on Instagram? - as visitors post pictures of themselves happily splashing would be enormous. We say all the time that we want more people to come west. We need to give them reasons.

People who come on holidays to the West do it for any number of reasons, but one of them is very definitely so that they have a ‘talking point’ when they go back home. Having a swim in a tidal pool is a ‘talking point’. It is a cool and a hardy thing to do.

Swimming of any kind is good for you. But sea swimming, with that salty immersion, is especially good for you. To be able to extend that to more people, by building a simple bit of infrastructure, sounds to me like an obvious idea and an easy win.