![\"Queues](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_beach-pic.png\")
<\/p>\nOne local warned an ambulance ‘wouldn’t have a hope’ of getting through at Garretstown<\/p>\n
19:01, 11 Jul 2026Updated 19:20, 11 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
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Queues at Garretstown this afternoon<\/p>\n
If you were at the beach in Cork today – you’ll know traffic<\/a> was absolutely jammers as half the Rebel County rushed to the sea to make the most of the warm weather<\/a>.<\/p>\n But while many were lounging on the sand and soaking up the sun – some beach-goers and residents living by the coast were warning that the surge of visitors caused absolute traffic chaos at popular beaches. The biggest concern was that the high volume of cars and vans, especially those parked in dangerous and illegal areas, would block access to emergency services in the event of a crisis.<\/p>\n Photos taken today from near Garretstown show the long queues for drivers in the area this afternoon, as big crowds travelled back from the town’s beach and Garylucas. Some Rebels said they were stuck on a bus for two hours just trying to leave the area. And another said an ambulance “wouldn’t have a hope” of getting through with how bad things were.<\/p>\n Queues at Garretstown during the warm weather<\/p>\n It comes after earlier today, when Cork County’s Lifeguards put out an appeal saying they were “experiencing very high visitor numbers.” Car parks at The Warren, Garrylucas and Claycastle Beach were completely full shortly after lunchtime, and lifeguards appealed to drivers not to block access for emergency services. Visitors at Inchydoney also said they had great difficulty finding parking, and that traffic was moving very slowly in the area.<\/p>\n The lifeguards further warned that their services finish at 7pm, and asked the public to never swim out of their depth or swim alone. They added an extra advisory for those at Inchydoney beach – saying that the Western and Eastern channels are “very dangerous especially due to the tide going out, it causes greater risk to those swimming.”<\/p>\n Drivers are warned that the high temps and sunny conditions aren’t going anywhere anytime soon – meaning today’s traffic<\/a> chaos could well happen again tomorrow. Temperatures reached above 25C in many parts of Co. Cork today, with some areas almost hitting 30C.<\/p>\n And the latest forecasts show we can expect much of the same heat on Sunday as the Rebel County – as well as Clare, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Mayo, Offaly, and Tipperary – are currently under a Status Yellow High Temperature Warning<\/a>.<\/p>\n The national forecaster has warned of several potential impacts of the heatwave, which include.<\/p>\n Water safety issues due to increased use of lakes\/beachesUncomfortable sleeping conditionsHeat stressPossible forest fires<\/p>\n All members of the public are being advised to take steps to keep themselves and others safe during the heat. These include wearing sunscreen, drinking plenty of water and staying in the shade where possible. You can track the hottest parts of the county by following our heatwave tracker here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One local warned an ambulance ‘wouldn’t have a hope’ of getting through at Garretstown 19:01, 11 Jul 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,767,620],"class_list":["post-544996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-weather","tag-west-cork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Queues](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_Garretstown.png\")
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