Sandymount Strand, Dublin

Sandymount Strand is a wide shore on Dublin’s east coast, beside the suburb that gives it its name. It forms part of South Bull and lies within the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve. The strand draws local walkers, but its tide has also caught people and, in earlier years, vehicles; a pool that remains after the water retreats is known as Cockle Lake.

The round Martello tower along the strand dates from 1804. It belonged to a coastal warning system built against the threat of invasion by Napoleon, and later served as a tramway office and a café. At the walkway’s end, Awaiting the Mariner rises as a 20-foot metal sculpture by Mexican artist Sebastián.

Mexico donated it in November 2002 as a sign of friendship between Irish and Mexican people. Nearby, Gallan Gréine is a sundial marker carved by Cliodna Cussen and dedicated to James Joyce in 1983.