Photo: Coastal Landscape Category Winner Sean Bruen with Balbriggan Lighthouse Blowing a Gale taken in Ballbriggan Dublin. 2025
With just one month remaining to enter, An Taisce’s Clean Coasts programme is calling on photographers to capture the beauty, power and fragility of Ireland’s coastline as part of the Love Your Coast photography competition 2026.
Entries close at midnight on May 15th, and organisers are encouraging people to turn their passion for the coast into a visual story that highlights the impact coastlines have on communities, nature and heritage, as well as the ways people can positively and negatively affect these environments.
Now in its 17th year, the competition continues to attract photographers from across the country, with thousands of images submitted annually showcasing the diversity of Ireland’s الساح coastline.
The 2026 competition centres on the theme of Impact, inviting entrants to explore the relationship between people, nature and the coast.
Photographers are encouraged to reflect on how human activity and natural forces shape oceans, waterways, and shorelines, and how these environments in turn influence wildlife, landscapes, and coastal communities.
By capturing the beauty of our waterways, coastline and marine life, photographers have a wonderful opportunity to showcase their work and in turn remind the public of the importance of caring for and protecting our unique landscape.
With an overall prize fund of €5,000 to be awarded amongst category winners, the Love Your Coast photography competition offers photographers the opportunity to exhibit their talent across five distinct categories. Each of these categories highlights different areas of interest to highlight along Ireland’s shores. From crashing waves, flowing waterfalls, and golden sands to vibrant coastal communities, diverse wildlife, and rich heritage, each category offers a chance to celebrate the beauty and significance of the Irish coast:
- Coastal Landscape
- People and the Coast
- Source to Sea
- Wildlife and the Coast
- Underwater
These categories invite photographers to depict Ireland’s coastline through photographs taken within the last 24 months.
To support participants, Clean Coasts have provided guidelines for photographers to optimise their skills and submissions, which can be viewed on our website HERE.
Closing date: May 15th 2026, at Midnight.
Winners will be celebrated at an awards ceremony held in Dublin in July. The ceremony will bring together shortlisted photographers, ocean advocates, supporters of the Clean Coasts Programme and special guests to showcase the winning images, honour the winning images, and highlight the stories behind the lens in an event dedicated to creativity and coastal appreciation.
The Clean Coasts Love Your Coast Photography Competition is kindly supported by the Department of Climate Energy and the Environment and Fáilte Ireland.
Tim Nuttall of Department of Climate Energy and the Environment said “The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment is proud to be part of An Taisce’s Love Your Coast photography competition, which features as one of the annual highlights of their Clean Coasts programme. The message of caring for our marine environment along with the high-quality images themselves which showcase the enormous range of marine biodiversity and seascapes is one which we are more than happy to support.”
Shane Dineen of Fáilte Ireland said “Fáilte Ireland is once again delighted to support the Love Your Coast Photography competition for 2026. The rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean, Irish, and Celtic seas make for endlessly changing sights and when combined with our unpredictable weather provide delight and surprise for locals and visitors alike. The imagery from the photographers each year plays an important role in highlighting the diverse marine wildlife and our maritime heritage on our island. We wish the very best of luck to all entrants as they capture the essence of the Irish coastline.”
Bronagh Moore, Clean Coasts Programme Manager, said: “Every year we look forward to seeing the stunning images that are entered into this competition. We have hugely talented photographers in this country and an amazingly diverse coastline as a subject, so it’s an honour to be able to showcase their work and our beautiful coastline through this competition. With ‘impact’ as our theme this year, I’m looking forward to seeing the ways in which photographers capture how our actions, both positive and negative impact on the coast.”
For more information about Love Your Coast and to submit your entries, please visit https://cleancoasts.org/our-initiatives/love-your-coast/
