Is it the airport or the M50? No, it’s Sandymount’s Strand Road

‘You can feel the vibration inside the houses’: Residents react to living on what is among the capital’s noisiest streets

Mon Nov 02 2026 - 06:00 • 2 MIN READ

Sandymount resident David Turner is not surprised Strand Road is among suburban Dublin’s noisiest hotspots.

To the casual observer it is hard to believe the coastal stretch is frequently one of the city’s worst offenders for volume.

It seems picture perfect – elegant terraces of Victorian homes look out across a grass swathe to the sea and onwards across Dublin Bay to Howth. Walkers, cyclists and parents pushing buggies follow a coastal path near the Martello tower. The sea air smells fresh.

Yet the data does not lie. Noise levels on a randomly recorded Thursday morning were classed as “high” according to Dublin City Council’s local noise monitor. The online figures show the monitor near the corner of Gilford Road hit 85.1 decibels at 9.20am, with an hourly average of 76.3 decibels at 10am.

Noise levels of that magnitude are comparable with Dublin Airport, which on Thursday morning reached briefly into the 70s, and intermittently around nearby Ward Cross.

The noise levels show Strand Road was frequently among the noisiest, if not the nosiest, roads in suburban Dublin. Levels are also comparable to those recorded close to the city’s M50 motorway.

“In the early morning rush five-axle lorries come down Strand Road from the Merrion Gates and you can feel the vibration inside the houses”, says Turner, who is chairman of the Sandymount and Merrion Residents’ Association (Samra).

He says the council has tried to tackle the problem. “They have reduced the speed limit, put in speed bumps and banned five-axle lorries.”

But still the lorries come. “In the evening the line of traffic is stopped,” he says.

Turner’s daughter Deirdre, also a committee member, is concerned about the long-term health effects of noise and traffic vibrations.

Simon Coyle lived on Strand Road in Sandymount for 38 years, until May of this year. He says the noise levels outside his front door were “a considerable” part of his decision to leave.

He says thousands of vehicles a week use Strand Road.

Coyle is a staunch supporter of the council’s plans to trial a cycleway and restrict vehicular traffic to one lane, southbound. The plan included Beach Road with the aim of creating space for a two-way cycle path.

But the High Court upheld a case against the cycleway brought by the Sandymount Traffic Committee, and Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn, over concerns about displaced traffic, in 2021.

Later this month the council will bring flood defence schemes for Strand Road to public consultation.

Observers believe nothing will happen in relation to traffic and noise restrictions until the flood scheme is decided.

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