The World's Largest Celtic Sand Art at Ballybunion Beach

The finished design at Ballybunion, with the ruins of the castle on the headland above. Drone photo: Nick Davis / Genesee Valley Media.

The International Day of Celtic Art

June 9th is the International Day of Celtic Art, and the date means a good deal to me. Gregory Hardy and I organized the first IDCA Conference in 2019. Right here in Andover, New York. we brought together artists and Celtic art experts from Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the US, It seemed an unlikely place for it, but then Andover has always been an unlikely place for a Celtic jewelry workshop, and that has never stopped us. What began in our small upstate village has since crossed the Atlantic, to Downpatrick in 2023 and now to Listowel, County Kerry in 2026. This year felt like watching something I helped plant come into full bloom on the other side of the ocean. Six of us from Allegany County made the trip to be part of it.

Six of us, bags packed, on the way to Listowel for Celtic Art Day.
Left to right: Sue Walker, Alec MacCrea, myself, Steve Walker, our driver Ian, John McHenry and Sydney Gallo.

The Listowel Celtic Art Weekend

The gathering was the IDCA Listowel Celtic Art Weekend, the third conference in the series, held June 11 to 14 at the Kerry Writers' Museum and St. John's Theatre, organized by Stephen Rynne. It is a hard thing to label: a bit like a convention, a bit like a conference, a bit like a festival. Goldsmiths, graphic artists, sculptors, blacksmiths, academics, and enthusiasts come from Ireland and from around the world, and the days fill up with exhibitions, workshops, and lectures on every corner of the Celtic arts. The Book of Ballykinlar, an illuminated folk-art creation by prisoners in the Irish War of Independence was among the works on exhibition.

The Listowel weekend, 11 to 14 June, at the Kerry Writers' Museum. Poster by Ed Rooney; courtesy of the Kerry Writers' Museum.

My own contributions to the conference were two lectures, The first was an academic look at the design and technical methods of creating medieval Celtic brooches. The second presentation was about my own journey as a Celtic jeweler in modern times. Additionally, with the help of John and Sydney, I taught two workshop classes of twenty students each in some fundamental jewelry making.

Raking knotwork into a beach

The sand piece was designed and led by the Waterford based artist Manu. He hit Ballybunion Beach at low tide on Sunday June 14, 2026 at 6:30 AM to begin laying out his composition of fourteen interlaced triquetras, also commonly known as Trinity knots. Using stakes and strings like a draftsman’s compass he drew arcs in the damp sand to guide the raking of the design.

Midday a bus arrived bringing the artists and volunteers who had spent the previous three days attending the Celtic Art conference in nearby Listowel. Using rakes, the artists followed Manu’s guidance. Raking the sand exposes the wetter sand beneath the surface, which contrasts with the dry sand on the surface.  First, they outlined the bands of the knotwork being careful to follow the strict over and under alternation characteristic of authentic Celtic interlace. The second phase was to rake the negative space between the strands of knots followed by shading the crossings of the cords giving a beautiful woven effect. 

As the lines darkened as the artists raked out the sand Davis became very excited about the way the composition aligned pointing towards the ruined tower of Ballybunion Castle. Davis said, “Very cool how Manu left it for us discover this surprise on our own as the sand art emerged.” 

In an interview with Nuacht TG4 Galway Irish language news Manu said, “It was a glorious day with a perfect setting.”

The final size of the composition was 4,500 square meters or 48,000 square feet. This equals 1.1 acre. This is the size of a regulation American football field.

 I have spent a lifetime arguing that real Celtic interlace is not just a tangle that suggests the style: every band has to pass over and under in proper alternation, and every line has to carry through and return on itself, unbroken. A single rake stroke in the wrong place breaks the weave, the same as a careless line breaks a knot engraved in precious metals. Doing it in wet sand, against the clock of the incoming tide, with no chance to fix a mistake later, made that discipline feel very immediate.

Raking the lines by hand. Get one stroke wrong and the weave is broken.

Taking my own turn with the rake.

From the air

You cannot really see a piece like this from eye level. The cliffs around the beach offered glorious viewing opportunities that amazed hundreds who were out enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon.  It reads best from above, which is where Nick Davis came in with his drone. From that height the raked channels read as what they are: the continuous, over-and-under interlace that has defined Celtic ornament for well over a thousand years. It is the same logic of the never-ending line that we work into rings and pendants at the bench every day, here drawn at the scale of a beach.

Looking down from the headland to the beach below.

The design in its setting, the castle and the town of Ballybunion beyond.

Straight down, in black and white: the whole design reads as one unbroken, interlaced line. Drone photo: Nick Davis / Genesee Valley Media.

On Irish national television

The project caught the attention of Nuacht TG4, the news desk of Ireland's national Irish-language broadcaster, who came to the beach and ran a segment on the sand art. It is a fine thing to see authentic Celtic art treated as news at home in Ireland.

Closer to home, the Hornell Sun carried the story of the record on June 19, along with a gallery of Nick Davis's photographs from the beach, and IrishCentral picked it up on June 26. Allegany County was well represented in Kerry that morning: John McHenry, Sydney Gallo and Susan Walker from the workshop, the Alfred woodcarver Alec MacCrea, and Davis behind the camera.

Made to be washed away

By the next high tide it was gone, the beach raked smooth again by the sea. There is something right in that. Celtic art has always been as much about the making as the keeping, and the knotwork we set into silver and gold carries the very same patterns that twenty of us raked into the sand at Ballybunion and then handed back to the water.

My thanks to Manu for the design, to Nick Davis for the drone photography, to Stephen Rynne and everyone who organized the Listowel Celtic Art Weekend, and to all who picked up a rake.

The design at the bench

The tide took the sand, but it did not have to take the design. Back at the bench in Andover the open triquetra from the Ballybunion composition became something wearable: the Manu Pendant, handmade in sterling silver and named for the artist who laid the whole thing out on the beach at half past six in the morning. Manu gave his blessing for his design to be made in silver. It is made in three sizes, with matching drop earrings and a pendant and earring set for the two together.

The Manu Pendant, in small, medium and large.

Manu Drop Earrings, the same knot at the ear.

The pendant and earring set, the pair as one.

About the Author

Stephen Walker has been handcrafting Celtic jewelry in Andover, NY since 1984. A jewelry designer since the 1970s, he has written and lectured on Celtic jewelry design, symbolism, and cultural interpretation, presenting at Celtic art conferences in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Australia. In 2019, he hosted the 1st International Day of Celtic Art Conference in Andover, NY, a series continuing in Ireland at Downpatrick in 2023 and in Listowel, Co. Kerry in June 2026, where he lectured on medieval Celtic brooches and took his turn with a rake at Ballybunion.

Learn more about Stephen & Susan Walker →