Mulligan leads Stephen and Haines "down towards the fortyfoot hole," an ocean swimming spot about one hundred yards from the Sandycove tower that in 1904 was (as seen in Tindall's photograph from the 50s) for "gentlemen only." Swimsuits were optional. Several different accounts of the origins of this name have circulated, none of them perfectly convincing.

Not far from the tower a rocky ledge juts into the sea, offering swimmers access to the cold deep waters and also sheltering a narrow inlet. The moving waters of this little bay are twice called "the creek." American and Australian readers, for whom the word refers exclusively to a brook or small river, may suppose that Joyce is using it in a metaphorical sense. But in British English, according to the OED, the primary meaning of creek is "a narrow recess or inlet in the coast-line of the sea." (Thanks to Antonio Lloret Macián for pointing this out to me in a personal communication.)

The swimming spot is locally famous. Slote, Mamigonian, and Turner quote from a letter that Oliver Gogarty wrote on 27 August 1904: "The sea here is 'crystalline' on account of Sandycove being sandless; and the bathing is excellent. I swim 3 or 4 times a day for from 1/2 to 3/4 hours at a stretch" (Many Lines to Thee, 21). Flann O’Brien featured the swimming spot in At Swim-Two-Birds, and in Bad Sisters the five sisters regularly swim there. (The men-only designation was lifted in 1976.)

Various explanations have been offered for the name Forty Foot. The water is deep, but only about half that deep. On an 1833 map the nearby Marine Road was labeled the Forty Foot Road, perhaps because of its width, and so perhaps lent its name to the coastal spot. But the road lies nearly a mile to the west––not all that near. Slote and his collaborators note that "According to one local legend, the name comes from the Fortieth Foot Regiment, but this is unlikely since they were never stationed in a nearby garrison."

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