Has anyone ever braved the Shelley Banks Beach height barrier in Dublin?

Mehdime · May 27, 2022

Shelley Banks in Dublin is the closest beach to where we live and we often go there are work with the kids to relax for an hour. It does have a height barrier marked at 1.95m (here - picture below is the best one I could get from Google Maps) but I've often seen VW Transporters there (albeit never a California) so the actual height might be higher (or all the vans I've ever seen there had lowered suspensions, which sounds unlikely).

Has anyone braved it or will my California have to be the sacrificial one?

Ch1pbutty · May 27, 2022

The speed bump makes it even more interesting. Barrier looks lower in the centre.

Only one way to find out!

Mehdime · May 27, 2022

Ch1pbutty said:
The speed bump makes it even more interesting. Barrier looks lower in the centre.

Only one way to find out!

It’s definitely lower in the middle yes. Which is what makes me think that the 1.95m might be the middle point and that you might be able to sneak under it by keeping left (while trying not to destroy your alloys on this lovely concrete border).

Mehdime · May 27, 2022

We went there tonight (with the car - Cali not arrived yet). Took the measuring tape out. The centre is actually *less* than 1.95m. And the sides more than 2m.

I doubt a Cali would squeeze through this. The area that’s 1.99m or higher seems to be only 1.4m wide.

Ting Tong · May 28, 2022

Try it slowly with someone standing on the side step with the sliding door open.

ThomasHJ · May 28, 2022

While you were there have you checked how rigid the barrier is? This particular one looks rigid, but with some it's possible to lift them (slightly)

Mehdime · May 28, 2022

ThomasHJ said:
While you were there have you checked how rigid the barrier is? This particular one looks rigid, but with some it's possible to lift them (slightly)

That’s what I thought… after I left. I’ll have to go back and see if it can be lifted. The barrier is in two parts. There something that holds both parts together in the middle but it’s likely it can be lifted.

Eber123 · May 28, 2022

Hello @Mehdime,

When we still had our T6 Ocean we went down there. I can't remember what year it was, maybe 2x years ago (or so).

The barrier was too low for the T6 Ocean. I don't know why, but there was a security man (on the left side driving in) which opened the barrier for us (after we checked that it was really too low).

He confirmed that somebody will be there later to let us "out" again. So we went down the to the car park and walked to "Poolbeg Lighthouse". After we returned to the camper we took the chairs out and had a nice cup of tea.

We only went once, so I don't know if there are still security staff is around or not. Put I can say that the barrier is too low for the T6 / T6.1 California.

Regards,
Eberhard

Mehdime · May 29, 2022

Eber123 said:
We only went once, so I don't know if there are still security staff is around or not. Put I can say that the barrier is too low for the T6 / T6.1 California.

Thanks a lot @Eber123, that’s really useful.

Mehdime · Sep 21, 2022

Finally made it the Shelley Banks beach in Dublin with the van. Van is a T6.1 Ocean with an awning, standard 17’’ wheels and suspensions and normal tyre pressure (mentioning this as this might matter given that we’re talking millimetres here).

There was a security guard at the barrier when I arrived. He was opening the barriers for trucks and entertained my request to test if the van could fit under it.

And it does. Picture below shows the way in. The barrier just about touches the awning there. But I wasn’t as far left as I could be. If you stick left as far as possible, you should be able to get under it just fine.

On the way out, I kept as far left as I could and went under with loads of millimetres to go (didn’t take a picture of the way out as I had a truck on my tail).

Really glad that we’ll be able to keep going there as it’s just the best place to go to unwind after a day at work.