NI Beaches

All beaches

Kilhorn Bay

South Down

Kilhorn 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 10°C Clear
Swell 0.3m 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 — 1 rated Unsatisfactory.

Modelled~109 spills/yrNI Water's prediction, all 4 combined
MeasuredNo monitornone of these overflows has a spill monitor
OverflowDistanceClassificationModelled spills/yrMeasured
Harbour Main Street CSO
→ South Down		 320 yd Unsatisfactory ~16 —
Kilkeel Road CSO
→ South Down		 490 yd Satisfactory — —
Halfway House CSO
→ Annalong River		 520 yd Satisfactory ~10 —
The Cornmill CSO
→ South Down		 580 yd Satisfactory ~83 —
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: Annalong Coastal WwTW (600 yd → Mourne Coast) · Glasdrumman Annalong WwTW (1.4 mi → South Down).

Amenities & features

Parking 12
Toilets 1
Cafes & food e.g. The Parlour 3
Shops e.g. Nearby 2
Picnic tables 6
Benches 22
Information 7
Bins 18

Boating — nearest harbours & marinas

  • Annalong Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 400 yd
  • Kilkeel Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 4.9 mi
  • Newcastle Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 6.5 mi
2 more further away
  • Greencastle Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 9.5 mi
  • Dundrum Harbour · Unknown · Newry Mourne and Down 10.8 mi

Wildlife & designations

This beach lies in or within 0.6 mi of:

  • ASSI Samuel's Port
    1 protected feature
    • Intertidal rock Favourable, 2005
  • 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.