Silverstrand has a safe, shallow, sandy beach of approximately 0.25km bounded on one side by a cliff and the other by rocks.  It faces directly into Galway Bay giving spectacular views.  Silverstrand beach has been a blue flag beach since 2006 and water quality is monitored regularly.  

The beach is life guarded daily from mid-May to end of August from 11 am to 7pm.  There is a promenade with parking capacity for about 60 vehicles.

The beach is often busy, particularly during the summer, and is popular with families so when it is busy kite surfers should go over the hill next to the beach to launch and kite in the lagoon.  

It is essential that beginners go to the lagoon to practice during summer months as the beach is narrow and shallow with families on the sand and swimmers in the water.

More experienced kite surfers will launch from beach when it is quiet but will quickly head out to deeper water or over to the lagoon so not to endanger the public.  

The lagoon is has a lot less chop and hazards so is better fun to learn and do jumps.  You can access the lagoon by climbing the wall behind the car park to walk over the hill.  It is also possible to walk across in front of the cliff on low tide.  There are a couple sandy areas to launch and land from. 

The lagoon and beach are suitable for kiting about 3 hours either side of low tide and are largely covered during high tide with no place to launch.  During spring tides the water comes in very quickly.  

The best wind direction is South West or South and you can find the forecasts for the location on Windguru under Rusheen Bay or on Windfinder under Silverstrand.

Silverstrand Beach, Co. Galway