KILLINEY BAY, County Dublin, Ireland

This is a photo of Killiney Bay, courtesy of Dalkey News in Dalkey.  If you look closely at the shoreline, you can see that there isn’t much sand.  Most of the beach is covered with small smooth stones, remnants of the Ice Age which have been washed ashore here.  When I first went to Ireland in 1990, you could not see any sand at all.  Nowadays, however, there is sand creeping through on the north end of the beach.  Killiney Bay is often likened to the Bay of Naples, or Gulf as Naples as it is sometimes called.  Killiney is one of the most affluent areas in County Dublin and many of the consulates and other foreign dignitaries live in the area, not to mention Bono, The Edge, Enya and others.  Since 2010, a pod of Bottlenosed Dolphins has resided in Killiney Bay.  Those are the Great Sugar Loaf Mountain in the background and Bray Head at the top left.