Giles, or Gyles’, Quay is situated on the northeast coast of Ireland, on Dundalk Bay’s northern shore and at the foot of the Carlingford Mountains. It is an isolated and drying quay that offers the only viable anchoring location in the extensive but shallow Dundalk Bay.

This is a good anchorage in wind conditions from west round to northeast with very good sand holding. A vessel will find completely flat water anything up to a mile offshore in these conditions. However, with winds from any other quadrant, the anchorage is completely exposed. Access is straightforward as there are no unmarked off-lying dangers and the quay is completely open to a seaward approach.

Being exposed to the swell of the bay, the anchorage is uncomfortable as soon as the wind is weaker than the swell.

Keyfacts for Giles Quay

Position and approaches

Haven position

53° 59.064' N, 006° 14.394' W

This is the head of the pier where a light stands Fl G 3s.

What is the initial fix?

Half a mile south of Gyles’ Quay pierhead and two miles east of the Dundalk Pile Light Fl 15s 10m 21M. A course of due north will take you into the quay from here.

What are the key points of the approach?

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What's the story here?

Giles Quay is situated on the northern shore Dundalk Bay and the southern shores of the Cooley peninsula 3½ miles within Cooley Point. It consists of an isolated stone pier extending 120 metres southward with a small scattered hamlet immediately inshore.

The pier dries beyond its head at low water so vessels planning to stay afloat should anchor off according to draft. Depths of 2 metres are available close to the pierhead with excellent sand holding. This is the last place to lie afloat in the protection that Dundalk Bay offers as from Giles quay extensive sandbanks sweeps round the bight of the bay to beyond Anagassan, on the south shore, uncovering at low water for a distance of up to 2 miles from the high-water limit.




Vessels that can take-to-the-hard can come alongside any part of the pier and dry out over a sand bottom.

How to get in?

Seaward approaches are detailed in eastern Ireland’s coastal overview for Strangford Lough to Dublin Bay .

Dundalk Pile Lighthouse - Fl WR 15s 10m 21M position: 53° 58.560’N, 006° 17.714’W

Dundalk Pile Light, a 10-metre high white house on green piles, is situated at its mouth. It provides a white sector, from 284°–313°T, that leads into Dundalk Bay between Dunany Shoals on the south side and the dangers extending from Cooley Point, notably Castle Rocks and Imogene Rock, to the north off Cooley Point. The latter two are marked by buoys.

Dunany Light buoy - (port hand) Fl R 3s position: 53° 53.530’N, 006° 09.502’W

Imogene Light buoy - (port hand) Fl (2) R 10s position: 53° 57.415’N, 006° 07.042’W

Dunany Point has a drying rock lies about ½ a mile east by northeast of the point. Dunany Shoals, with a least depth of 1.8 metres, lies north of the point. These are marked by a lighted buoy moored about 3½ miles northeast of the point.

By night a pierhead light Fl G.3s stands on an extending spur at the outer end of Giles Quay. But vessels are best advised to stand well off for fear of running into lobster pots off the pier.

The Gyles’ Quay initial fix is set 2 miles east of the Dundalk Pile Lighthouse. A bearing of due north for 1 mile will take a vessel directly to the stone pier from the initial fix.

The pier should be highly visible from the initial fix and will most likely have a lobster boat nearby as at least one commercial potting vessel is based here. As such approaching vessels should keep a sharp lookout as the entrance of the harbour and or access to the quay will be barred from some directions by lines of floating fish pots.




The pier dries beyond its head at low water so vessels planning to stay afloat should anchor off according to draft. Depths of 2 metres are available in an area that ranges from 200 metres south of the pier head stretching across 200 metres west of the pierhead. Any further west and the depths drop off to 1 metre and then less. Excellent sand holding will be found throughout this area. Land at the slip.


Those intending to come alongside temporarily will find the deepest water alongside the pierhead’s 17-metre spur. Expect to find 2 metres here at half-tide and a convenient ladder to come ashore.

Why visit here?

Giles Quay, also 'Gyles's' or 'Giles' Quay, derives its name from Ross Gyles who built a wooden pier here in 1780. The original wooden structure eroded away in time and was rebuilt in stone in 1824.



This pier served as a local quay for fishermen, and the 19th-Century boarding point for Dundalk port's pilots. During this period the location also became convenient for the illegal importation of wine and tobacco. The pier's easy seaward access with a long and isolated strand combined with an accessible hinterland made it ideal for smugglers to land their trade on the beach. It was to stem this illegal importation that the coastguard watch station was constructed in 1823 when the new pier was under construction. Alongside this, a small quaint village grew around the pier. It includes a scattering of three rural churches and some buildings that include an interesting early classical house.




Today Giles Quay is very popular with holidaymakers that stay at the caravan park situated on the cliff above the quay. The area's attractiveness is readily apparent. The extensive stone pier, with its original stone paving, granite bollards and former coastguard houses at the base, is very pretty. Then add to it the vast stretches of isolated sand-gravel beaches that it protects and you have the perfect sand and bucket day out. When the backdrop of the Cooley Peninsula, with the Carlingford Mountains, are included you have all the ingredients that makeup one of the most picturesque regions in Leinster.

From a boating point of view, Gyles' Quay is a beautiful location to drop anchor in northerly quadrant winds and the best anchoring location in Dundalk Bay.

What facilities are available?

Gyles’ Quay has very little other than the pier with a slipway. At the top of the hill above the pier there is a shop, takeaway and pub with basic provisions servicing a small caravan park in the season. The pier is located 1 km south of the R173/R175 road that is the main Dundalk-Carlingford road about 11km from Dundalk.

Any security concerns?

Never an issue known to have occurred anchored off Gyles’ Quay.

With thanks to:

Charles Floody, Drogheda Harbour Pilot for more than three decades, and Brian Lennon.