Banna Strand is the big open beach of North Kerry. It faces the Atlantic between Ballyheigue and Barrow, a few kilometres west of Ardfert, with a ridge of high dunes behind the sand and the mountains of the Dingle Peninsula across the water to the south. We flew our drone over it on Sunday 1 November, and the pictures and video on this page are from that afternoon.
What the beach is like
At low water the beach is wide and flat, and the wet sand reflects the sky. Sand and dunes run south from Ballyheigue towards Barrow, so from the car park you can walk in either direction for as long as you like. Towards the Ballyheigue end the outflow from Lough Akeragh crosses the sand.
Banna holds the Blue Flag for 2026, awarded by An Taisce, and there are lifeguards in the summer months. The notice board by the beach gives the times. On a calm day the water is good for swimming between the flags. Outside the lifeguard season we treat it as a beach for walking.
The dunes
From the air you notice the dunes first. The National Parks and Wildlife Service looks after them as part of the Akeragh, Banna and Barrow Harbour Special Area of Conservation and records marram ridges more than 20 metres high in places. Behind them are older grassy dunes where pyramidal orchids grow. Use the paths from the car park to the sand: the marram grass holds the dunes together, and every new track through it gives the wind a gap to dig out.
Roger Casement and Good Friday 1916
Early on Good Friday morning, 21 April 1916, Roger Casement, Robert Monteith and Daniel Bailey came ashore on this beach in a small boat from a German submarine. They were part of a plan to bring German arms in for the Easter Rising, and it failed. Casement was arrested the same day at an old ringfort a few kilometres inland, still known as Casement's Fort. He was taken to London and executed in August 1916.
A memorial to Casement and Monteith stands by the dunes. The road home through Ardfert passes Ardfert Cathedral, the medieval ruins linked to St Brendan, if you want a second stop.
Parking and facilities
Parking at the main car park is free. There are public toilets beside it and a lifeguard hut close by. For food and coffee, Ardfert and Ballyheigue are a few minutes away by car.
Getting there from our homes
Banna is closest to Fenit. From The Lighthouse, our house in the village, it is about 25 minutes by car round the bay through Ardfert. From Listowel allow about 40 minutes by the Tralee road and Ardfert, which makes it a half day trip from 59 William Street; Ballybunion is the nearer beach from there. From our cottages at Camp it is about half an hour through Tralee, and longer from Castlegregory and Cloghane.
If the wind is from the north, park at the Ballyheigue end and walk south with it at your back. Our Banna Strand guide in Things to Do has the practical details in one place.
