Keem Bay named among world’s top beaches

BREATHTAKING Keem Bay Beach in Achill has been named as one of the world’s finest beaches. Grianghraf: Cormac Ó Cionnaith

Anton McNulty

Keem Bay was in illustrious company last week when it was named among some of the world’s most popular and best beaches.
Travel website, Big 7 named Keem Bay on Achill Island as the eleventh best beach in the world after releasing its annual list of the 50 Best Beaches in the world for 2019. The beaches were placed using a combination of readers votes, aggregated scores from previous media results, official Blue Flag locations and contributions from the Big 7 Travel editorial team.
Commenting on Keem Bay, Big 7 stated that its gleaming white sand rivals anything the top tropical islands have to offer.
“Keem Bay is a breathtaking rural and sheltered beach surrounded by cliffs on Ireland’s largest island – Achill Island. Its gleaming white sand rivals tropical islands and the water is superbly clear,” they wrote.
“The sun might not always be shining, but when it does it’s world-class. And yes, it’s beautiful even on a rainy day.”
Keem Bay was the only Irish beach to make the top 50 beaches with the vast majority of the beaches located in sun-kissed locations such as the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Pacific. The five beaches directly behind Keem Bay were located in South Africa, Spain, Fiji, Hawaii and French Polynesia while Pig Beach in the Bahamas beat the Achill beauty spot into the top ten.
The website named Zlatni rat (Golden Horn Beach) in Brac, Croatia as the number one beach, beating off the world famous Whitehaven Beach located on the Whitsunday Islands in Australia, which was named as the second best beach.