We hiked to Portally Cove Beach via the Coastal Cliffwalk. I left part of my heart in this cove. We stayed in this cove for quite some time, conversing with some of the locals, looking for sea glass, which we were lucky enough to find and just basking in the pure radiance and beauty of this location. I count down the days till I am able to return.
We had high hopes for this beach, but when we arrived there was not much parking as the locals had coned off the road leading to it. Plus there was quite a lot of scum and foam washing up on the shore and very pebbly, which didn’t make it very appealing for a swim. Beach and landscape were attractive enough, but not a place to swim!
Lovely coastal walk of an easy 30 minutes each way from Dunmore car park (online guides making this a 2 hour plus walk are utterly wrong) to Portally Cove. The cove is safe for swimming at all tides but there is a very strong westerly current running from just outside the cove so only expert open water swimmers should consider venturing swimming to Seal Cave which is about 1500 metres away. The coastal walk is probably best in May or early June when the Thrift are in full bloom on the cliff edge. Be warned the SE coast is prone to sea fog, which, if it descends, rarely lift within a day