page_title: Donabate
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Donabate / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Swans in the Broadmeadow estuary Donabate, Co. Dublin
context_page_description: Donabate is a small coastal town in Fingal, Ireland, about 20 kilometres north-northeast of Dublin. The town is on a peninsula on Ireland's east coast, between the Rogerstown Estuary to the north and Broadmeadow Estuary to the south. Donabate is a civil parish in the ancient barony of Nethercross.
context_section_description: The Donabate peninsula forms a distinctive hammer-head shape. This is because each of the mouths of both estuaries surrounding the peninsula are partially closed by large sand spits stretching north to south. The northern spit contains Portrane beach which almost touches Rush South Beach but for a narrow channel entering the Rogerstown estuary. A stretch of low limestone cliffs to the south of Portrane beach leads to Donabate Beach which is the east face of the southern spit. The southern Broadmeadow estuary is likewise almost completely enclosed and is fed by the Broadmeadow river. The shelter provided by the spits had made the estuaries important wildlife habitats and both are protected under the international Ramsar Convention.
caption: Mute Swans in the Broadmeadow estuary Donabate
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