Qualla: Broadhaven Bay

Broadhaven Bay: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Broadhaven Bay is the only place in Ireland where you can reliably encounter all five of the marine mammals the European Union considers worth its highest level of legal protection. The bottlenose dolphin, the harbour porpoise, the grey seal, the common seal, the European otter, all five swim, hunt, breed, or rest in the same 8.6-km-wide cup of north-facing Atlantic water. Seventy-two marine species in total have been counted in this bay. None of them voted on the gas pipeline that was buried under the seabed beneath them, and a local fisherman went to prison for five months in 2010 rather than stop fishing while it was laid.

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Image: M J Richardson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Broadhaven Bay: Where the Atlantic Comes In

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Comhar, Public domain. The opening of Broadhaven Bay faces straight north, 8.6 km of water between Erris Head in the west and Kid Island in the east. Behind it sit the parishes of Kilcommon, Kiltane, and Kilmore Erris, three pieces of the ancient Barony of Erris. The land that wraps around the bay is m...

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Image: Comhar | Public domain

Broadhaven Bay: An Armada in the Mud

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Comhar, Public domain. In 1588, ships of the Spanish Armada, scattered by storms after their failed attempt on England, were driven onto the west coast of Ireland. Several foundered in the waters of North Mayo. One of them, the Santiago, went down in Broadhaven Bay. The wreck became one entry in a long...

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Image: Comhar | Public domain

Broadhaven Bay: The Stags

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Public domain. Look northeast from the bay toward Benwee Head and you will see them: five jagged rocky islands rising out of the Atlantic like the fingertips of something half-drowned. Na Stácaí, the Stags of Broadhaven. The highest, called Teach Dónal Ó'Cléirigh, sits in the centre of the grou...

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Image: United Kingdom Hydrographic Office | Public domain

Broadhaven Bay: The Pipeline and the Prisoner

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Comhar, Public domain. Between 2002 and 2014, Broadhaven Bay was the front line of one of Ireland's longest environmental disputes. Royal Dutch Shell, working to bring gas ashore from the Corrib field offshore, sent the Solitaire, then reputed to be the largest pipelaying ship in the world, into the ba...

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Image: Comhar | Public domain