Gaelforce Great Fjord Swim, live.

Sea swimming in Ireland's only fjord

The Gaelforce Great Fjord Swim is an open-water sea swim in Killary Fjord at Leenane on the border of Connemara and Mayo, with four distances from 750 m to 10 km.

The 2027 swim is on Saturday 11 September. Organised by Gaelforce Events, it is the original Gaelforce Killary swim and part of the Great Swim Trilogy with the River Swim on the Shannon and the Lake Swim at Portumna. Swimmers finish at Killary Adventure Company in Leenane, on the edge of the fjord.

There are four distances. The 750 m is aimed at first-timers and has a 40 minute cut-off. The 2 km is a step up for swimmers with some experience, with 1 hour 30 minutes allowed. The 3.9 km is the full Ironman swim distance, with a 2 km checkpoint at 1 hour and a finish within 2 hours, and a wetsuit is recommended.

New for 2027 is a 10 km marathon distance, the longest sea swim Gaelforce has put on. Entrants must be 18 or older and have completed a 3.9 km race in under 1 hour 45 minutes within the past year. The cut-offs are 5 km in 2 hours 20 minutes and the finish within 5 hours.

Expect cold water: the organiser says Killary is typically 12 to 13 degrees in September. Wetsuit and non-wetsuit swimmers are both welcome, and the 750 m and 2 km waves are taken out to their start by boat. Leenane is about 75 km from Galway city, and there are toilets and changing areas on site. Race packs with the swim hat and timing chip are posted in advance.

On Livebib you can follow a swimmer live if they choose to share their own position from the phone they carry, for example sealed in a tow float. That position comes from the swimmer, not from the organiser's timing, and the official results are published by the organiser.