Online petition calls for immediate ban on wild camping at Mayo beach

Mayo County Council have been urged to take action against wild camping around Keel beach on Achill Island after a number of incidents of littering and wild fires were reported in recent weeks.

An online petition has been established following incidents of wild camping in the dunes close to the Blue Flag beach where litter and rubbish was left behind.

The petition, which has been signed by over 450 people since August 8, has called on Mayo County Council along with Fáilte Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to take immediate action and ban all wild camping in sensitive

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“Keel, Achill, is home to one of Europe’s rarest coastal habitats, the Machair grasslands right beside a Blue Flag beach. Every summer, this living ecosystem is being burned, trampled, and polluted by unregulated wild camping, open fires, and dumping,” stated the online petition.

“The Machair is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under European law. It should be one of Ireland’s most protected landscapes. Instead, it is treated like a free-for-all campsite, with no warden, no signage, no enforcement, and no plan to stop the destruction. Locals have been raising the alarm for years. Authorities have promised a Visitor Management Plan yet nothing has changed. A recent video showing the damage has been viewed over 122,000 times, sparking outrage nationwide.

“This is not an occasional nuisance. It is an ongoing, predictable pattern of environmental damage that is robbing future generations of their heritage. Protected on paper, burned in reality,” it read.

As well as calling for a ban on wild camping in sensitive areas of Keel, the petition called on the authorities to enforce exiting bans on fires and dumping, install 'clear, permanent signage marking the Machair as a protected habitat', fund a seasonal warden during peak months and deliver 'the long-promised Visitor Management Plan without 'delay.

“If action is not taken now, this rare habitat will be permanently scarred. As the old Native American proverb says, 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children'.

“John Healy, who had strong ties to Achill, titled his famous book “No One Shouted Stop”. Decades later, no one is shouting stop now either as fires burn on protected ground, as rubbish piles up, and as this precious place is slowly erased.

“If we stand by, the Machair will be gone, replaced by scorched patches of blackened soil, drifting sand where grass once grew, and a coastline stripped of life. That is all we will have to hand to our children.”