Sailing inyourfootsteps.com

4°C

Swell today

Direction SE, height 0.1 metres, period 0.0 seconds, significant wave height of 0.6 metres.

Haven position?

53° 59.040' N, 006° 14.352' W

Where is that position?

At the end of the pier where a light stands Fl G 3s.

What is the initial fix?

Half a mile south of Gyles’ Quay pierhead and two miles east of the Dundalk Pile Light Fl 15s 10m 21M. A course of due north will take you into the quay from here.

What is the story here?

Gyles’ Quay is situated on the northeast coast of Ireland situated on Dundalk Bay’s north shore beneath an imposing ridge of mountains collectively referred to as Carlingford Mountains. The isolated drying quay offers the only viable location to anchor in the extensive but shallow Dundalk Bay.

This is a good anchorage in wind conditions from west round to northeast with very good sand holding. A vessel will find completely flat water anything up to a mile offshore in these conditions. However with winds from any other quadrant the anchorage is completely exposed.

Access is straightforward as there are no offlying dangers and the quay is completey open to seaward approach.

Why visit here?

Gyles' Quay is a beautiful location to drop anchor in northerly quadrant winds. The extensive stone pier, with former coastguard houses at the base, coupled with vast stretches of isolated sand-gravel beaches and the Carlingford Mountains in backdrop makes it a very scenic location.

The locations immediate history dates back to 1780 when Ross Gyles built a wooden pier here thus lending the location his name. The wooden structure eroded away in time to be rebuilt in 1824 as the stone pier that exists to this day. The pier served as a local quay for fishermen and the 19th Century boarding point for pilots to bring ships into Dundalk port.

During this period the location also became convenient for the illegal importation of wine and tobacco. The easy seaward access with long isolated beach combined with an accessible hinterland made it ideal for smugglers to land their trade upon the beach. It was to stem this illegal importation that the coastguard watch station was constructed in 1823.

Today it is an area popular with holidaymakers that stay at the caravan park situated on the cliff above the quay. People fish off the pier at high water where Dabs, Flounder, Plaice, Dogfish and Conger at night are reported to be had.

How to get in?

Gyles’ Quay is upon the north shore of the broad and open Dundalk Bay that resides between Dunany point and Cooley point. From Gyles’ Quay extensive sand-banks sweep round the bight of the bay to beyond Anagassan, on the south shore, uncovering at low water for a distance of up to two miles from the high-water line. The narrow channel of the Castletown River leads through these sands to the harbour of Dundalk with the Pile Light, a 10 metre high white house on green piles, situated at its mouth.

Dundalk Pile Lighthouse - Fl WR 15s 10m 21M position: 53° 58.560’N, 006° 17.714’W

The pile light provides two lights; the top light that leads into the bay and a lower light that leads into the Dundalk channel. The top light white sector 284° to 313° shows the safe approach into Dundalk Bay avoiding the Dunany Shoals, on the south side, and the dangers extending from Cooley Point, Imogene and Castle Rock to the north, that are further marked by the following buoys:

Dunany Light buoy - (port hand) Fl R 3s position: 53° 53.530’N, 006° 09.502’W

Imogene Light buoy - (port hand) Fl (2) R 10s position: 53° 57.415’N, 006° 07.042’W

The Gyles’ Quay initial fix is two miles east of the Dundalk Pile Lighthouse. A bearing of due north for one mile will take a vessel directly to the stone pier from the initial fix. This should be highly visible from the initial fix and most likely it will have a lobster boat nearby as at least one commercial potting vessel is based here.

The pier dries out entirely at low water so you should anchor off to the southwest in a depth of your preference. Depths of 2 metres LWS are available in an area that is 200 metres south of the pier stretching across 200 metres west of the pierhead. Any further westing and the depths drop off to 1 metre. In this entire area you will find excellent holding in sand.

The 120 metre pier has an extending spur at its outer end where the pierhead light Fl G 3s stands. It is on this 17 metre spur at the pierhead where the deepest water to come alongside can be found. At half tide you can expect to find two metres here and a convenient ladder to come ashore.

What are the tides here?

Today's Dover tides — High waters: 11:11, 23:32, Low waters: 06:21, 18:43 ^{From Tide Times}

Dover +0015
Mean spring range about 3.9 m; mean neap range about 2.5 m

The latest monthly Dover and Dublin (North Wall) tides courtesy of the National Environmental Research Council. Printable monthly tides for Dublin, Dunmore, Cobh, Galway, Belfast are available from the ISA.

The national weather forecast, Met Éireann and BBC shipping forecasts, plus a very simplified Leinster tourist outlook. From an Atlantic perspective a 24 hour North Atlantic synoptic chart that you may ‘right click’ and save to your hard disk. Met Éireann’s Eastern Atlantic chart and the BBC’s surface area forecast plus visible satellite images for Ireland and Northeast Atlantic from Met Éireann. Wind observations, XC UK & Ireland, Windguru wind & wave reports, and Windfinder where you can determine a forecast time. Coastal radio stations (VHF Channel) Weather forecast at 0103 and thence every 3 hours updated every sixth. Carlingford 04, Dublin 83, Wicklow Head 02, Rosslare 23 and Mine Head 83. Radio broadcasts on RTE 1 (89.1FM) 0603, 1253, 1655 and 2355.

A free tidal range prediction application for windows, a simple tide monitor plus the rule of twelfths are available in inyourfootsteps.com shared ‘experience’.

What facilities are available?

Gyles’ Quay has very little outside of the pier with a slip way and a shop and pub with basic provisions servicing a small caravan park in the season. The pier is located 1 km south of the R173/R175 road that is the main Dundalk-Carlingford road about 11km from Dundalk.

What emergency contacts are there?

Dublin Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) VHF Ch 83 covers the area from Carlingford Lough to Youghal. Carlingford (04), Wicklow Head (02), Rosslare (23) and Mine Head (83) provide relay stations. Coastguard Radio is always called on a working channel. Emergencies are worked on 16, 67 and working channel.

Alternatively, or if ashore, phone 999 or 121 (free) and ask for ‘Marine Rescue’. Gardai (police), Fire and Rescue are also available on this number. Dublin (MRSC) may be contacted directly on +353 1 662 0922/3

Dundalk Harbour Master
Phone: +353 42 34096
VHF: Ch. 14, 2, two hours either side of high water

Any security concerns?

Never an issue know to have occurred anchored of Gyles’ Quay.

What navigational resources are available for this area?

British Admiralty 1411 ‘Irish Sea - Western Part’, Scale of 200,000:1. For detail work Admiralty Chart 1431 ‘Drogheda and Dundalk’ Scale 20,000:1. Imray chart C62 – ‘Irish Sea’ plus Discovery Ordinance Survey map 36 cover this area. ’Sailing Directions - Irish Cruising Club - East & North Coasts of Ireland’ provides an excellent pilot for this area.

With thanks to:

Charles Floody, Drogheda Harbour Pilot for more than three decades.

---

Please zoom out to see the 'initial fix' for this location.

How can I get this offshore?

If a mobile signal is available you can access all of our information via a mobile phone's internet browser. We provide a 'Lite' site, Lite In Your Foot Steps using the shorter initials www.liyfs.com, that presents our data in a simplified, speed optimised format. Similarly, if an internet connection is limited or expensive, switching to the 'Lite' site enables faster and more efficient access.

Alternatively print this page's text, illustrations and photos, but without the internet menu, layout, backdrops and Google maps, or economise upon printer consumables and print this page with text only, to get a hardcopy of this location.



Print this haven

Add a review or comment:

Please log in to leave a review of this haven.

Please note inyourfootsteps.com makes no guarantee of the validity of this information, we have not visited this haven and do not have first-hand experience to qualify the data. Although the contributors are vetted by peer review as practised authorities, they are in no way, whatsoever, responsible for the accuracy of their contributions. It is essential that you thoroughly check the accuracy and suitability for your vessel of any waypoints offered in any context plus the precision of your GPS. Any data provided on this page is entirely used at your own risk and you must read our legal page if you view data on this site.