Fortyfoot hole

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.

John Hunt 2024


William York Tindall's 1950s photograph of the path to the swimming hole. Source: The Joyce Country.


2009 photograph of "the creek," looking north-northeast toward the Howth peninsula, with swimmers faintly visible in the middle-ground.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.


Another recent photograph of the inlet, looking southeast toward Dalkey.
Source: www.intangibility.com.


  2018 photograph by Giuseppe Milo showing the same scene at sunrise.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.