Streedagh Beach

Streedagh is a long strand backed by dunes on the Sligo coast, with Benbulbin behind it and Donegal Bay in front. Two things distinguish it. The rock platform at the northern end holds one of the better exposed fossil beds in Ireland - Carboniferous limestone around 350 million years old, packed with corals and crinoids from a shallow tropical sea, visible in the pavement at low tide. And in September 1588 three ships of the Spanish Armada, La Lavia, La Juliana and Santa Maria de Vison, were driven ashore here in a gale; more than a thousand men died on this beach, and Francisco de Cuellar, one of the few survivors, left a written account of what followed. Timbers and cannon have been recovered from the site since the 1980s. A memorial stands at the dunes. There are no lifeguards and the rips here are strong.

What you actually see

• The fossil beds - corals and crinoids in 350-million-year-old limestone.
• The Armada site - where three ships came ashore in 1588.
• The strand - three kilometres of storm beach backed by dunes.
• Benbulbin - the flat-topped mountain directly inland.

When to go

May to September for the beach; low tide for the fossil platform, which is otherwise underwater. Winter storms expose and rebury archaeological material.

Honest expectations

No lifeguards and strong rip currents - this is not a safe swimming beach. The fossil platform is slippery and only accessible at low tide. Dunes are eroding and fenced in places.

Nearby

Mullaghmore is north; Grange and Drumcliffe are inland toward Sligo.