‘I still feel like an interloper when it comes to sea swimming in Belmullet’

In his book Sea Pools, shortlisted for best monograph in the Architectural Book Awards 2024, Christopher Romer-Lee selects “66 of the most beautiful and culturally significant sea pools from around the world”.

Proudly included is my local bathing spot, the Belmullet tidal pool, where they swim on full moon nights just for a bit of craic. It’s safe as houses – except on a rough spring tide, when you’re in for a bit of a battering.

Romer-Lee, cofounder of award-winning Studio Octopi architects in London, likens the pool to a work of art by the late David Judd; considering he was seen as a leading international advocate of minimalism, that’s some accolade from architect Romer-Lee, for the Mayo bathing spot celebrating its ruby anniversary this summer.

Describing it as a “1970s utopian vision that should have stayed on the architect’s drawing board,” avid sea swimmer Romer-Lee wryly says: “Thank God it didn’t.”

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The tidal pool acts as a strong pulse within this remote maritime community, where young, old, brave and bold gather year round in all types of weather for daily dips and educational trips. It’s a spot where 300 local children each summer are taught the perils of the sea and how to overcome them in emergency situations.

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Owned by Mayo County Council, it’s maintained by a voluntary group of local stalwarts. Earlier this week, local fire brigade lads were inside hauling out heaps of silt, blown over from two months of tempests. Emergency services come together to teach water safety skills in this remote coastal community: “They work in parallel with us, teaching kids how to deal with an emergency, and how important a child’s role can be for the chance of someone’s survival,” explains Michelle Healy, who, along with his mother Liz, runs swim classes. “By the time they have done the course, the kids (30 of whom took a CPR course this week) are confident in how to call 999 and how use a defibrillator,” he says.

This “rectilinear tour de force” jutting into Blacksod Bay is still going strong despite four decades of Atlantic battering.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. Its location, a few minutes stroll from the town, was initially a popular pebble beach for bathing. But when it comes to getting your kit off, there’s always going to be a bit of a contention from conservative men with the notion they’ve a God-given right to deem a plot of water a “men only” bathing place. So the audacity of local women – not prepared to tolerate this nonsense – was lambasted from the heights of church pulpits. They won though, the brave women down here, and a tidal pool – a safe man-made structure filled by saltwater tides – was planned for the contentious spot.

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What’s special about this piece of maritime architecture, so lauded in this nominated book, is its entirety, from design to completion, was all a community effort. A local committee had a big dream four decades ago. Their magical thinking became this lagoon.

At times appearing almost ethereal in the glow of twilight as Achill frames the horizon, it welcomes up to 200 swimmers daily in summer. Kept going by the likes of charity swims and fundraising, last year for repairs, the community raised €50,000 alone.

You really can swim safely year round, and in summer it’s almost 24/7 as there’s only a few hours of pure darkness, while many gather in winter for the buzz of a moonlight dip. It’s built at the edge of housing so serves as a superb facility for local families, and kids learn to swim without fearing dark seas or what might lurk beneath the seaweed.

Romer-Lee describes the pool as resembling an art installation. If you were here in September 2022, you could have witnessed Disappearing Islands, Songs from the Edge of the World: a magical theatrical production by the Performance Corporation, set around and in the pool.

Inspired by local stories of losses at sea, contemporary dancers contorted as mezzo-soprano and a cappella male vocalists added a hint of harmony. Having won Irish Times Theatre Awards, Performance Corporation – based between the Erris Peninsula and Europe – are at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris as part of their pioneering SPACE Programme.

Belmullet Swim Club’s motto: “Sure it’s grand when you’re in,” hasn’t really changed my opinion on freezing water. Though I’ve bought the fleece, I feel a bit of an interloper as I rarely get in before May, unless it’s somewhere warm.

I’m not like the 50 brave souls who swim daily despite deluges and water temperatures as low as five degrees. After six most enjoyable but freeing years in the 80s at the Victorian Kylemore Abbey, I just don’t do cold water that well.

And I tend to feel a bit strangulated while swimming in a wetsuit too, and it always has to come off. While treading water. It’s never a pretty sight; think less like the poise of dancers above, and more like a wriggling neoprene walrus.