Recent work

Last year, thanks to funding from LAWPRO, we designed a bespoke project for water quality and biodiversity in Skerries.  We commissioned a report from writer & environmental consultant Féidhlim Harty.  He joined us in Skerries and identified a number of areas where we could use nature-based solutions to help ease localised flooding, to enhance biodiversity and to improve water quality in the stream and at the beaches.  As we’re lucky enough to be beside the seaside, and have a stream, there are a number of interesting options.  Another area which we can address is places in Skerries which flood after heavy rain.  Things like SUDS & swales can really help with that and at the same time provide food and habitat for insects and other creatures.  There’s more information about those and other possible measures info in Feidhlim’s report, which you can access via our Plans for Skerries page.

We installed a water butt and a rain planter at the Community Centre.  Both these measures help slow water reaching the drains during heavy rainfall.  If enough people take similar measures, we’d have fewer “No Swim” notices after storms, & cleaner water at our beaches.  

Check out the water butt, rainwater planter & water refill station at the Community Centre

We requested that Fingal County Council install 2 water refill stations in Skerries at the Community Centre and beside the playground at Skerries Mills.  These help people avoid single-use plastics. The refill station at the Community Centre has dispensed over 35,000 bottles worth of water to date.  In Fingal, that’s second only to the one in Ardgillan.

More info on YouTube

Féidhlim’s report is very detailed and specific.  For a quicker overview of why the measures are so useful and so needed in places like Skerries, we recommend taking a look at our videos of Féidhlim speaking at the 2024 Skerries Eco Festival.  A good place to start is this short taster video of the walk & talk Féidhlim gave.  There are a number of fascinating longer videos of Féidhlim’s talks, once we’ve whet your appetite: the Skerries walk & talk, and his talk “Nurturing the Miracle” which highlighted how water is a crucial part of the solution to the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity decline.  

Recognition from An Taisce and The Irish Times

As well as providing hours of fun for Skerries beachgoers, our Beach Toy Library helps keep plastic pollution out of the sea and off the beach.  Skerries scored a special mention in An Taisce’s recent IBAL report and we were delighted that press coverage picked up on their mention of our Beach toy library.  Thanks again to Skerries Men’s Shed for building us a new sturdy box this year.  It will be retired soon for Autumn/Winter, but back for more fun & games next year when the weather improves.

We were very proud to win Irish Times Greenest Place competition as Ireland’s Greenest Town, & delighted that the Beach Toy Library, plus our other water measures were singled out for praise.

The very popular Beach Toy Library saves plastic from ending up in the sea

Our Plans

We are working with the Community Centre on progressing one of Féidhlim’s recommendations.  Watch this space!

Drainage of the tennis courts could be future-proofed with swales

We’ve also requested that Fingal County Council repair the fence on the South Strand which protects the marram grass and asked them to use signage & other communications to raise awareness of why we should protect it.

We recently contacted our local representatives to ask them to push the government to enact the Marine Protected Areas Bill.

Other Skerries water news

We were pleased to see that Fingal’s plans for Red Island and Harbour road include permeable parkings spaces, SUDS & tree pits.  Fingal’s plans for the grass between the Community Centre & the Mills swales.  You can see them in the reception of the Communty Centre.

SUDS on Red Island will increase biodiversity & help keep the paths dry

Get involved

We hope this will inspire some of you to take action. We recorded a really useful online webinar where Féidhlim gave very practical advice about small projects we can do in our own gardens.  If you like the rainwater planter at the Community Centre, we used this beautiful & easy to follow guide to design it.  The plants we used in ours are thriving a year later.  They were chosen to be resilient in dry weather (they’ve never been watered) and also do a great job of soaking up water after heavy rain.  They are also pollinator friendly.  We used Yellow Flag Iris & Aquilegia, but there are loads of other suitable plants.  We’ve compiled a list at the bottom of this page, based on an info sheet you can find here.  

If you have any idea, or would like to help us do more, get in touch: sustskerries@gmail.com