NI Beaches

All beaches

Ballykeel Bay

South Down

Ballykeel Bay is a coastal beach on the South Down coast. It is not a designated bathing water, so there is no routine water-quality monitoring here.

Conditions now

Air 8°C Clear
Swell 0.4m period 3 s · NE
Rain 0mm last 48 hours

Water quality

Not a designated bathing water — not routinely sampled.

No published samples for this site yet.

Weekly lab samples, not real-time. Avoid bathing for 48 h after heavy rain.

Sewage & storm overflows

4 NI Water storm overflows within 1.2 mi — 4 rated Unsatisfactory.

Modelled~53 spills/yrNI Water's prediction, all 4 combined
MeasuredNo monitornone of these overflows has a spill monitor
OverflowDistanceClassificationModelled spills/yrMeasured
Ballymartin Village WwPS
→ South Down		 0.6 mi Unsatisfactory ~33 —
Leestone One WwPS
→ Mourne Coast		 0.8 mi Unsatisfactory ~20 —
Leestone Two WwPS
→ Mourne Coast		 1.1 mi Unsatisfactory — —
Mourneview Kilkeel WwPS
→ South Down		 1.1 mi Unsatisfactory — —
How these are counted

“Modelled” is NI Water's hydraulic-model prediction of spills per year. “Measured” is from NI Water's event duration monitors, counted with the industry 12/24 method (discharges within the same 12- or 24-hour block count as one spill); the bathing-season figure (1 Jun–15 Sep) is our count from NI Water's published discharge log. An overflow with no monitor isn't known to be dry. Classification is NI Water's own.

Nearest wastewater treatment works: Ballymartin New ST (860 yd → Mourne Coast) · Kilkeel WwTW (1.5 mi → Mourne Coast).

Amenities & features

Parking 1

Boating — nearest harbours & marinas

  • Kilkeel Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 1.6 mi
  • Annalong Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 3.5 mi
  • Greencastle Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 6.3 mi
2 more further away
  • Newcastle Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 9.3 mi
  • Warrenpoint Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 12.1 mi

Wildlife & designations

This beach lies in or within 0.6 mi of:

  • pSPA Carlingford marine proposed Special Protection Area, not yet classified
    3 proposed features
    • Light Bellied Brent goose
    • Sandwich tern
    • Common tern

Protected features and their latest condition assessment, from DAERA's 2023 marine protected area review. Only sites with a marine part are assessed there.

Alerts & advisories

No advisories active for this beach today.