A concrete road with dashed white lines that disappears into the Irish Sea. Beyond it: grey water, an island on the horizon, and the occasional ship. In real life, at high tide, the “road” is a slipway; in a photograph it appears as a portal into another world below the water.
Sandycove sits on the south side of Dublin Bay, the slipway is situated at Sandycove Point right beside Sandycove Beach and the world-famous Forty Foot sea-bathing spot. The suburb is small, Victorian, and densely lived-in. Year-round sea swimming has gone on for about 250 years, and it is often busy – taking away from any liminal felling whatsoever.
The white road markings pictured, were painted onto the walkway by a local, whimsically making the path look like a tiny, literal “end of the road”, or long forgotten highway. The famous photograph was taken by photographer Carl de Keyzer, though the diver has been edited out. However, on a grey day, or in the early hours of the morning – with no people – the slipway and many ‘vanishing’ stone steps, do still give a ‘threshold’ feeling, that one could simply walk into the tide, and never be seen again.
