Bundoran (The Peak) Swell Window
County Donegal, Ireland · part of the Bundoran (The Peak) spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 200°–310° (SSW–NW)
- Best direction
- ~285° (WNW)
- Period sweet spot
- 12–16 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 4–12 ft
- Resulting faces
- 3–12 ft
Open-ocean vs. the face: the heights on buoys and forecast models are significant wave height (Hs) in deep water. What you ride is the breaking face, which depends on period, direction and this break's bathymetry — that's why the two rows above differ. PierMonkey's spot ratings already do this conversion for you.
It takes southwest through northwest but is tuned to west-to-northwest around 270–300°, where long-period groundswell refracts cleanest. Southwest still delivers when nothing else is clean — the reason it is the region’s most consistent break — but shorter-period and more textured; 12 seconds and up switches it on.
The height on a model is an open-ocean reading. A 4-to-6-foot reading at 12 to 14 seconds makes a head-high-to-overhead face; on the biggest days, past about 8 ft, the left shuts down and the right holds into double-overhead.