Europe's First

The Europe's First geocache (GC43) is the first geocache hidden in Europe, on 3 June 2000 at Bray Head, in County Wicklow, Ireland — only a month after the deliberate degradation of the civilian GPS signal was lifted, which is what made the game possible.

Its story almost ended abruptly. Chris O'Byrne, who had hidden it close to home, found it gone on 15 June 2003 and gave up on replacing it. It was Donnacha who put a new box out on 31 May 2004 and took over the listing, keeping Europe's oldest cache loggable.

Its creation date makes it an essential worldwide target for the famous “Jasmer Challenge”, which requires finding at least one cache hidden in every single month since the game began in May 2000. June 2000 being one of the rarest months on the platform, this Irish box constantly draws international players who come specially to tick that historic box.

Do not underestimate the climb: the wind often blows hard on this headland and the path is steep, so bring proper shoes. But once at the top, signing the logbook of the very first geocache in Europe with that sweeping view of the ocean is a genuine thrill. It is a real pilgrimage, and worth every drop of sweat!