Snorkelling the Pollock Holes: the best hour in Kilkee, and it is free

You do not need a boat, a cylinder or a certification. You need a mask, something on your feet, and the right hour of the right day. Get the tide wrong and the Pollock Holes simply are not there.

What they are

Natural pools in the Duggerna reef at the west end of Kilkee, scoured out of the rock by the Atlantic over a very long time. At high water they are simply part of the sea. As the tide drops they emerge as clear, sheltered pools — and for an hour or two you can swim in water that is calm, shallow and full of life while the ocean breaks on the reef a few metres away.

They gave the pollock their local fame, and the fish are still there.

The tide is the whole thing

This is not a place you visit when it suits you. The pools are properly exposed around low water.

Aim to arrive an hour or so before low water and be out well before the flood pushes back in over the reef. Tide times for Kilkee are on our home page, taken from Marine Institute predictions rather than a generic model.

Check the tide before you check the weather. A sunny day at high water is no use to you here.

What you will see

More than people expect from water you can stand up in. Small pollock holding in the deeper corners. Blennies and gobies sitting on the rock, watching you and refusing to move. Anemones — beadlet anemones like red blobs when closed, opening into a ring of tentacles underwater. Prawns and shore crabs in the weed. Sea urchins and starfish. Wrasse in and out of the kelp at the seaward edge.

It is the best introduction to Irish sea life there is, because everything is close, still and well lit. Children who will not put their face in a swimming pool will happily spend an hour here.

What to bring

• A mask that fits. This matters more than anything else — a leaking mask ruins it. Snorkel optional; plenty of people just duck under.

• Something on your feet, without exception. The reef is sharp, uneven and slippery, and the walk out is over rock, not sand.

• A wetsuit if you have one. 3 mm is fine, and it adds buoyancy as well as warmth.

• Dry clothes and something hot. You will be colder afterwards than you expect.

Staying out of trouble

• Watch the sea, not the pools. The reef is exposed Atlantic and waves can wash across it, particularly on any swell. If there is surf breaking over the rock, this is not the day.

• Know your way back. The walk out looks obvious on a dropping tide and much less so once water is moving across the reef again.

• Never go alone, and keep children within arm's reach at the seaward edge.

• Look, do not take. These pools get a lot of visitors and everything in them is living there. Put back any rock you turn over, exactly as you found it.

If the tide is wrong for the Holes on the day you are here, come and talk to us — a Discover Scuba session or a snorkel from the slipway works on any tide, and gets you into deeper water than the pools ever will.

Masks, snorkels, boots and suits are all in the shop on the East Pier, and the end-of-season deals are on now. Ring 085 255 2064.