THE FORTY FOOT
The Forty Foot is a promontory on the southern tip of Dublin Bay
at Dún Laoghaire where people have swum in the Irish Sea all year
round for some 250 years. It is famous for offering a swimming
point to those who are brave enough to face the chilling
temperature of the Irish Sea.
In former times it was kept solely as a gentlemen's bathing
place and the gentlemen's swimming club was established to help
conserve the area. Things have changed since then, and the place is
now also open to women and children as well. The gentlemen's
swimming club still exists and is open to both genders.
The area may have been called the Forty Foot after the 42nd
Highland Regiment of Foot (now known as the Black Watch), a
regiment of the British Army, which built a fortress here in 1747.
Another theory is that it took its name from the nearest train stop
in the 1800s, which was at Dun Laoghaire (then Kingstown). Just
outside the station, the road leading up to the town was 40ft wide.
Passengers from Dublin coming for a swim said they were alighting
at the "forty foot" and over time the name transferred itself to
the swimming spot, which back then was about 20 feet to the left of
where most swimmers now enter the water.
The Martello Tower is located just a few tens of meters from The
Forty Foot and James Joyce, a writer of international renown,
resided there. The tower now holds a museum (James Joyce Museum),
devoted to the life and works of him. He used the tower setting for
the first chapter of his masterpiece, Ulysses.
The Cache:
To find the cache you will need to visit a couple of locations
first.
Stage One: N 53° 17.249 W 006° 06.999. At this stage, you will
see a commemorative stone. Take a date when the tree was planted in
May 1983 and call it AB.
Stage Two: N 53° 17.321 W 006° 06.861. At this location, you
will see a few lifebuoys. How many lifebuoys are there? Call this
C.
Stage Three: N 53° 17.366 W 006° 06.831. At this stage, there
are some cylinder-shaped pillars (or bollards). As of Jan 2012,
these are painted dark-blue. How many of these pillars are there
(Clue: there are twice as many short as tall)? Call this D.
Stage Four: N 53° 17.321 W 006° 06.811. At this location, you
will see some steps. How many steps are leading to the tower? Call
this E.
You now have everything you need to find the cache. Don´t forget
what you have to COUNT FIRST during the counting. Just bethink of
Maths at primary school and you get it. The cache can be found
at:
N53° 17. (31 x B - D)
W006° 06. [3 x C] [(A x B)
– (2 x D)] [3 x E + A]
The cache is a green "decon" container with a logbook and
pencil. If you stand on the "high" side of the tree (where the
rocks are), the cache is about 5 feet above ground level.
Please take out a cache with extreme
care because it’s muggled area, especially at sunny days.
Please rehide the cache carefully: hook it back onto the piece of
wire and tuck it back in behind the ivy as you found
it!