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The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay

Breakwater · Brackish water · in Dublin Bay and the Wicklow coast

A granite sea wall running some four kilometres out into Dublin Bay from the Poolbeg shore, built in the eighteenth century to hold the Liffey channel open, with deep water on the channel side and drying sand on the other.

Safety: cold water shock — can cause serious injury or death. 3 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

What you can catch here

Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.

From the shore · 5

What these strengths mean
Established quarry
Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Places, accounts and sources are counted separately
A fish documented once at each of six marks is still documented once at each of six marks. Breadth is reported as a place count and never raises the strength, and sources are deduplicated across places so one publisher covering a whole coast counts as one. A fishery account is a source describing the fishing; a recorded catch is a report of a specific catch. They are counted apart because they are not the same evidence.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.

Widely documented on this ground

Documented at three or more neighbouring places, fished a way this place is also fished. That is a pattern about the ground rather than about any one mark, and it is the closest this site comes to saying you will probably meet a fish somewhere nothing has been written about.

From the shore

  • Pollack — documented at Wicklow Head; Howth pier; Wicklow East Pier (+3 more)
  • Dab — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth (+2 more)
  • Saithe — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth (+2 more)
  • Small-spotted catshark — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; Dollymount Strand (+2 more)
  • Ballan wrasse — documented at Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth; Wicklow Head (+1 more)
  • Atlantic cod — documented at Wicklow Head; Greystones North Beach and Pier; Velvet Strand, Portmarnock
  • Conger eel — documented at Wicklow East Pier; Greystones North Beach and Pier; The Nose of Howth
  • European plaice — documented at Velvet Strand, Portmarnock; Greystones North Beach and Pier; Dollymount Strand

Also documented at neighbouring places

One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.

From the shore

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

  • Ledgering

    Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.

  • Spinning

    Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.

  • Float fishing

    Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.

The ground and the water

The ground
A granite sea wall running some four kilometres out into Dublin Bay from the Poolbeg shore, built in the eighteenth century to hold the Liffey channel open, with deep water on the channel side and drying sand on the other.
Exposure
Exposed on both faces once past the shelter of the shore, and untenable in an easterly blow when water comes over the wall.
Tide and flow
The wall exists to concentrate the ebb of a large estuary into one channel, so the stream alongside it runs hard and is the reason the ground fishes.

Through the year

The months the sources attach to each species here. Where a species carries no season it is listed underneath rather than assumed to run through the year.

The months in which each profiled species is recorded as quarry at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Atlantic mackerel — established quarry, recorded in June, July, August, September.
Whiting — established quarry, recorded in November, December, January, February, March.

Recorded here with no season stated: European flounder, European sea bass, Thick-lipped grey mullet.

Safety

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

Northern European water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.

Slips, trips and falls — Can cause serious injury or death

Wet rock, weed-covered ledges, boulder shores and steep descents to the water. Falls here produce broken ankles and head injuries, and they happen on the walk rather than in the fishing.

What reduces it: Boots with a stiff sole and real grip, both hands free on a descent, and a route down chosen in daylight if the session runs into darkness.

Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death

Tidal islands, causeways, strand crossings and rock gullies that are dry ground at low water flood on the tide, and the water arrives behind the angler rather than in front of them. The Irish west and south coasts carry a large number of these and several are the ordinary way onto a mark.

What reduces it: Work out the tide for the day before walking out, and work out the exit rather than the entrance. Set an alarm for the turn. Never assume a crossing that was dry on the way out will be dry on the way back.

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

Narrow sounds, estuary mouths, harbour entrances and channel edges run hard on the tide, and the water moving through them is a whole bay emptying and filling through a gap. Somebody who enters that water is carried, not swum, and shingle and sandbanks shift under the current.

What reduces it: Treat the state of the tide as part of the mark rather than as a timing detail. Do not wade a channel edge. Stay off shifting banks on a making tide.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Ireland is not generally licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, harbour and local authority rules, conservation designations and national fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the harbour or local authority and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Irish freshwater angling requires permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, and salmon and sea trout additionally require a state licence and a tagging arrangement. Seasons, permits and conservation measures apply and change. Check with Inland Fisheries Ireland and with the fishery owner or club before going.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

Who holds the answer:

  • Inland Fisheries Ireland, which administers angling and fisheries protection.
  • The harbour or local authority, for access to structures and the shore.
  • Inland Fisheries Ireland, for licensing, seasons and fisheries protection.
  • The fishery owner, club or association that controls the water.
  • The harbour authorities and the owners of individual piers, breakwaters and lighthouse approaches, whose decision about access and angling is theirs and is signed rather than negotiable.
  • Inland Fisheries Ireland, for freshwater fisheries, for salmon and sea trout licensing and tagging, and for the sea angling conservation measures it administers.
  • The government department responsible for the marine, and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, for sea fisheries measures, minimum sizes, bag limits and protected species.
  • The National Parks and Wildlife Service, where a designation constrains access, disturbance or collection.
  • The Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the shellfish classification and biotoxin monitoring programme, before anything filter-feeding is taken.
  • The harbour authority, local authority, club or landowner controlling the specific structure or shore, whose permission is theirs to give and is not stated here.
  • The Irish Coast Guard and the RNLI, for safety guidance on this coast.

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

The Great South Wall, Dublin BayDollymount StrandThe Grand Canal, Dublin reachHowth pierThe Nose of HowthVelvet Strand, PortmarnockRogerstown EstuaryGreystones North Beach and PierSkerries Pier
The Great South Wall, Dublin Bay and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

  • EMODnet — the European Marine Observation and Data Network — The European Commission, assembled from the national hydrographic offices, geological surveys and marine institutes of the member states (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Charted bathymetry, seabed substrate and seabed habitat for European sea areas, assembled from the national hydrographic and geological surveys, at the resolution the product publishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • The European Environment Agency's assessments of Europe's waters, seas and coasts — European Environment Agency, Copenhagen (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment of Europe's coasts and regional seas, including the condition of coastal water bodies, the pressures recorded on them and the coverage of designated sites.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of European sea angling practice by region, ground type and destination, including the continental marks British anglers travel to.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which continental European places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock and the immersion response, tidal cut-off, and water-safety guidance for shore anglers and small-craft users. Cited for the mechanism, which does not vary by coast.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Wicklow, Dublin, Louth and Meath — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A practitioner shore directory describing this mark's ground, species, methods, baits and the character of the access.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-18.

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