Is there such a thing as a private Beach ?

Ok this is something that came up on a recent post so a wanted to get an idea of what others think, that is unless we have any legal experts out there who can tell us definitively.
One of the contributors to the post said that a certain beach was private and that anglers are only allowed there at the Landowners behest.
I think this is completely wrong and that there is no such thing as a private beach, a beach may have a private access or you may have to cross private land to get to it but that's about it and I really hate seeing landowners trying to claim what they don’t own and trying to push anglers around.
The landowner may own the surrounding fields etc but does not own the beach and foreshore this is owned by the Irish State.
The 16 local authorities on the coast are responsible for the coastline (all 5800km approx) of it in the Republic and the Irish State owns the foreshore which includes the strip of land and the beach and nobody owns below the mean high water mark.
I think this is in the Constitution or the Foreshore Act and I would really like to know for sure what the situation is.

as far as i understand it you have it right - a landowner may own the access to it - but not below the mean high water mark

so if you hop in a boat and land on it you can fish away technically - a lot may have to do with the co co motivation - ugool beach or dooaghtry in co mayo was fenced off by a farmer years ago - the co co did nothing and now there is no access to the beach from the farmers land

have a look at this http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/leisur ... -31606.pdf
it might help

Cheers Lads,
We have had a similar thing down here with Golf courses etc putting up 8 ft fences which actually run out into the sea, the Co.Co. have ordered the fences be taken down but it hasn't happened in all instances

another place i found some info on this topic was here

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1933/en/ ... index.html

if anyone is interested

There is the notion of a private beach, but do legal definition per se. All that can be said definitively is the State owns the part beneath the high water mark.

The County Councils do NOT have control over all beaches in Ireland. I've pointed this out in the case of Wicklow - and the information on the three beaches they do control. The problem arises in what constitutes the *beach* - the CoCo or other public authorities may own other parts part of the foreshore - the dunes for example, and declare them nature areas, whereas a landowner may own other parts. Nobody goes drawing lines on the beach. A landowner does NOT have to allow you to access the beach across his or her land anymore than anyone can take a shortcut across a garden to access a public park. That said, most don't care as long as you close gates, don't trample crops, break down barriers or leave garbage.

So, can you do what you like on a private beach - like drive, park, light fires, hold parties, or cart off sand or gravel from it, park caravans without permission? No.

But, it simply isn't worth monitoring as 99.9% of people behave themselves. However, push it and you're legally obliged to leave if asked. If you don't, the cops are called. To be honest, nobody cares too much about people (and I mean that in more than one way) driving onto the beach 100 yards to fish if they clean up after themselves. What I have seen happen at Ennereilly was one SUV with a couple of cretins in it drive the entire length of the beach at speed, two (cheap) rods sticking out the window, right up the river, breaking the banks, leaving huge track marks, and disturbing the swans there, so these morons could fish there for 10 mins. Now, would anyone tolerate that? I wouldn't even classify these two knuckle-draggers as anglers.

It's about time the State introduced annual fishing licenses for ALL angling in Ireland, and enforced it.

re

The problem arises in what constitutes the *beach* - the CoCo or other public authorities may own other parts part of the foreshore - the dunes for example, and declare them nature areas, whereas a landowner may own other parts.

The foreshore is the intertidal area of the beach, and is owned by the state.

[paul mason]

Last edited by paul mason on Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[It's about time the State introduced annual fishing licenses for ALL angling in Ireland, and enforced it.[/quote] j***s no.