Forty Foot gate at Sandycove, a framed Irish sea swimming print with a wrought-iron gate at sunset

Sea Swimming in Irish Art: The Forty Foot, Vico and Salthill

Ask an Irish sea swimmer why they do it and the answer is rarely about fitness. It is about the first thirty seconds, the gasp, and the strange clarity that follows. The places where people have done this for generations have become part of the country's visual memory, and a handful of them are now very good wall art.

The Forty Foot, Sandycove

The Forty Foot, on the south side of Dublin Bay, is the best known of them. Joyce put it in the opening pages of Ulysses, where Buck Mulligan heads down from the Martello tower to swim. By tradition it was a men-only bathing place, and that changed in the 1970s. The wrought-iron gate at the top of the steps has become the picture people remember, and it is the subject of our Forty Foot Gate, Sandycove print.

Forty Foot gate, Sandycove, framed print in black showing the wrought-iron gate at sunset
The Forty Foot gate at Sandycove, framed in black.

Vico and the Dalkey rock pools

A short walk south along the same bay, the Vico Baths below Sorrento Park are not a beach at all. They are rocks, ladders and deep clean water, and Dubliners have jumped into them in every season. Our Vico Swimming, Dalkey print catches the railings and red rock at sunset. Further along the Vico Road, Sunrise in Hawk Cliff, Killiney gives the same bay from above, an early swimmer's view of the day beginning.

Vico Baths, Dalkey, at sunset with railings on red rocks over Dublin Bay, framed print
Vico, Dalkey: railings, rock and Dublin Bay.

Salthill, Galway

On the other side of the country, the diving tower on the Salthill promenade is a Galway rite of passage. It is less about the height of the dive than the fact that most people in the city have stood up there at some point. Our Salthill Diving Tower print shows it with waves breaking over the rocks, and it works well in a hallway or kitchen where it will be seen every day.

Salthill diving tower, Galway, at sunset with waves over the rocks, print in a light oak frame
The Salthill diving tower at sunset.

When the painters went bathing

Irish painters were drawn to water long before sea swimming became a trend. John Lavery turned to bathing scenes in the 1920s, and Chiswick Baths, painted in 1929, shows a crowded open-air London pool in dabs of yellow, green and blue. It is a sociable, sun-warmed counterpoint to the colder Irish tradition.

For rougher water, Roderic O'Conor painted the Breton coast in bold, unmixed strokes in the late 1890s, and our Seascape carries that energy. Francis Danby, born near Wexford, painted Sunset at Sea After a Storm in 1824, with golden light breaking over a restless sea, which is the swimmer's reward for getting out early.

Chiswick Baths by John Lavery, framed print in a gold frame above a white marble fireplace
Lavery's Chiswick Baths (1929) in a gold frame.

Choosing a swimmer's print

For a swimmer, the best print is usually the place they actually swim. Choose the larger 60 × 90 cm size for a wall you pass often, and a pair of the smaller 30 × 45 cm prints for a landing or bathroom. Black frames suit the Forty Foot gate and Vico, while light oak suits Salthill.

See the full set in our Sea Swimming Prints collection, or browse everything in the Irish Art Prints hub.

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