Laois outdoor heated swimming pool reopens for summer

Grab your goggles and togs because one of the nicest places to swim in the Midlands is reopening.

Lucky Laois boasts an outdoor heated public swimming pool, entirely run by the community in the lovely village of Ballinakill.

It will reopen this Friday afternoon, June 21, with hopes for a busy summer season.

The chairperson of Ballinakill Community Development Association is Declan Kennedy.

"We hope for warmer weather this summer. Last year was a tough season, but we did reopen again when we got a warm spell for 10 days and that was great," he said.

Successful participants in the 2023 Swim for a Mile programme by Laois Partnership at Ballinakill pool.

"The Swimmin Women aqua aerobics and the Swim for a Mile groups are returning, we welcome Trilogy triathlon club on Thursdays, we will be offering swimming lessons from July, and we hope to welcome schools back again next week.

"The weather is a bit cold still but it's a nice 23 degrees in the water. We put in 20KW of solar panels over the winter to help our electricity costs. 

"It's a lot nicer than swimming in an indoor pool, you are not as choked up with chlorine, you're swimming in the fresh air," Declan said.

"We are opening a bit later than usual so we have reduced our season memberships too," he said.

It is all run by volunteers in the town, which has an incredible list of amenities, including the free Heywood Gardens, a playground, a fishing lake and now a new trailhead walkway next to the pool and playground.

"It takes us about two months to get the pool up and reopened. Our next big project is to reinstall the entire floor of the pool. There are cracks in it which get discoloured although the water is clean. We plan to fix that next winter," the chairperson said.

Family season tickets are €195, individual season tickets €100 and individual adult swims cost from €4.

Bookings can be made online in the coming days, on the Ballinakill swimming pool website.