In this first article of a two-part series, Zoe Devlin delves into the history and geology of our islands
Cromwell’s barracks on Inishbofin
Way, way back in the mists of time, somewhere between ten and thirteen thousand years ago, Ireland was covered in a vast sheet of ice. This frozen layer was, at some stages, up to one kilometre deep and it advanced and retreated several times, eventually beginning to melt, very slowly, around 10,000 years ago. As it gradually thawed, saltwater flowed into the surrounding oceans forming much of the contours of modern Ireland. The rising sea levels steadily carved out the shape of our coastline with its inlets and bays, releasing the island from the icy grip of the previous millennia. It also exposed Ireland’s highest mountain peaks, projecting skywards through the ice sheet as severe rocky ridges known as ‘nunataks’ – one such is Ben Bulben in County Sligo.
Not only did our island find itself liberated from this frozen state but so did a necklace of smaller islands around our shores, becoming free and standing above the level of the ocean. Achill island, off the coast of County Mayo, possibly the first to appear, its highest point, Cruachán, now reckoned to be almost 700m above sea level with An Cró Mór on the Great Blasket following sometime later, reaching 292m.
Islands have always been a major source of intrigue to me. I love the feeling I get whenever I am one, of being on a portion of the country that is separate and away from the ‘mainland’. Somehow it gives me an opportunity to look at that same ‘mainland’ from a totally different angle. Many years ago I spent a day on the uninhabited Deenish Island – Dubh Inis (Black Island) – lying close to the neighbouring Scariff, off the coast of County Kerry, and it left me with a memory that I will cherish forever. It seemed as if time stood still that day, and that I was quite literally in a different world. I could see the Kerry coastline, some four miles away, but it really felt as if it was another country and here I was, with my life on hold, and that, for the moment, all that mattered was the exploration of this island. I could shrug off the everyday problems and simply focus on where I stood. Perhaps this was a forerunner of the concept we now call ‘mindfulness’. I was on this little piece of land, completely surrounded by the mighty ocean and could only marvel at the life of those who once lived there. One old homestead on the sheltered eastern side of the island was in relatively good shape. Its roof was intact and there were some items of wooden furniture – I remember the large table and two settles. The last inhabitants had left only a few years earlier and I wondered at their frame of mind as they departed. Was it dark and sad or was there an element of optimism?
Deenish and Scariff
I mooched slowly around the lazy beds beside the house, dark brown ridges of soil raised between drainage trenches, evidence of their vegetable needs. I felt as if I was entering a history book about their lives while, at the same time, allowing myself to let the knots of my own everyday life unravel. I sat on the grass and watched three seals hanging in the clearest water I have ever come across – you could see right through to the sandy bottom below. The creatures even made eye contact with me before turning lazily, as one, and swimming away, their hind flippers the last thing to disappear below the surface. I combed the little runnels, marshy grooves along the spongy turf with soft mosses in shades of gold, orange and bright green blanketing their sides. Tiny pink flowers – those of Bog Pimpernel – grew in straight lines, almost as if they had been sown by human hand, where narrow rivulets of water ran down the boggy soil. It was a day I shall never forget.
Gun Rock on Inishbofin
There was no ferry to Deenish, just a kind local fisherman who dropped me and my little family there in the morning and picked us up later that evening, but many of our islands can now be accessed more easily. One such is County Galway’s Inisbofin – Inis Bó Finne (island of the white cow). This island lies about eight kilometres away from the small harbour of Cleggan from which there are daily sailings. Once home to one and a half thousand folk, this figure dropped dramatically during the famine and is now thought to be below two hundred. However, in summer the numbers on the island swell as it becomes a haven for nature lovers – birdwatchers in particular. Inisbofin – along with neighbouring Inishark – is a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) because of its unique coastal lagoons, its areas of both bog and dry heath and the bird sanctuary on the north coast. Many travel to the island hoping to get a glimpse of the rare Corncrake, the shy migrant bird that flies in April from its winter home in Sub-Saharan Africa to breed in meadows along our western seaboard, its nest concealed and protected amongst the long grass and nettles. In recent years its evocative, rasping call has been heard more often than over the previous few decades, the small island now holding ten per cent of these birds in Ireland. Inisbofin’s old hay meadows are vital for the survival of this bird and this traditional habitat is managed for Corncrakes and other ground-nesting birds by cutting them just once a year, after they have bred, usually in late summer or autumn. As well as the long grasses and nettles they need, plants such as Yellow-rattle and Red Clover all help to provide vital cover.
Signs to Omey Island
Omey – Iomaí (resting place).. is a small island not far from the County Galway village of Claddaghduff, and it has a quiet peace about it. The main inhabitants these days are rabbits with birdlife also in abundance. No ferry is needed, just some patience as you wait for the tide to recede and then either a walk or a drive across the 300 metre stretch of pale beige sand, between guiding arrows that point out the safest route. Omey is also a Special Area of Conservation as the intertidal sandflats are important for waterfowl, especially wintering birds such as Ringed Plover, along with flocks of Turnstone, Brent Geese and Dunlin. Fahy Lough, the shallow freshwater lake at the island’s centre is easily accessed as is Lough Namackan, a smaller lake lying north of Fahy Lough, with species-rich freshwater marsh vegetation such as the beautiful plant of bogs and canals, Bogbean.
County Cork’s Dursey Island – Oileán Baoi (island of the bull) is reached neither by ferry nor across a sandy beach but by means of Ireland’s sole cable car(1) – the only one in Europe to cross open seawater – which carries visitors across the narrow stretch known as Dursey Sound. The population of this small island stood at its highest in 1861 when 237 brave souls carved out a living; however in the last census there were just three inhabitants.
The ruins of a signal tower that dates to the Napoleonic Wars stand on the highest part of the island and close-by is a whitewashed sign that says ‘Eire’. This was painted in order to let pilots know that they were flying over neutral Ireland during WWII. Sadly a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 crashed in fog on nearby Crow Head in 1943. There were no survivors.
Now the island is mainly visited by day trippers in summer. Perhaps they’re there to catch a glimpse of Choughs, those glossy black birds with scarlet legs and bills that perform their acrobatic flight across the landscape, thrilling all those lucky enough to spot them or more likely Razorbills and Guillemots.
Razorbills
Another island that is easily accessed is Valentia – Dairbhre (oak isle) off the Kerry coast. The way onto the island is by means of either a bridge from the mainland at Portmagee or a car ferry(2) that transports visitors and motor vehicles from Reenard Point, across to the small village of Knightstown.
With a current population of over 650, Valentia has an interesting history. In 1857, when the population numbered over two thousand, efforts began to connect a 3,000 kilometres long cable from the far side of the Atlantic. Success didn’t come easily or swiftly and it was to be nine years and several attempts before the first practical transatlantic communication was achieved, linking Foilhommerum Bay on the south-west of the island with Heart’s Content in Newfoundland. The whole story of this remarkable feat is told through a blend of interactive and fixed displays at the Valentia Cable Station in Knightstown.
For those whose interests lie more in what grows on the island, a visit to Glanleam House is most rewarding. On the north-east of the island, this is a location where sub-tropical gardens deliver the mildest microclimate in Ireland, areas which, under the influence of the Gulf Stream, are never subject to frost. Tree ferns, myrtles, camelias, bamboos are in abundance and those seeking to connect with the natural world can marvel at the native vegetation that grows outside of the garden setting. St Patrick’s Cabbage lines the narrow roadways through the island, particularly in damp areas. This is a species that is related to the garden plant – London Pride and it bears dainty pinkish-white flowers, each speckled with yellow and red dots, and small waxy leaves that look as if they were cut with a pinking shears! A true south-west of Ireland native is Irish Spurge, a handsome perennial that grows in bright green clumps in shaded hedgerows, and of course, there are those stalwarts of western roadsides, Fuchsia and Montbretia, both non-natives that came to our shores in the last century, respectively from South America and South Africa but have since become quite naturalised.
Common Scurvygrass
Far away from Kerry, in the province of Ulster, is County Donegal’s largest inhabited island – Arranmore – Árainn Mhór which lies five kilometres from Burtonport and is served by two ferry services(3). With a population that’s around 470, Ulster Irish is spoken by more than half of those living there and in summertime the numbers on the island increase as visitors arrive to attend language classes.
Others come to experience the peaceful, untamed feeling of the island, with its sea caves and wide expanses of silvery sand. Birdwatchers seek out the spectacular cliffs along the Sli Arainn Mhor (Arranmore Loop Walk), part of the Bealach na Gaeltachta, a National Waymarked Way; the caves are home to avian creatures such as Puffins, Fulmars and Gannets, which form noisy colonies as they roost and nest on the rocky ledges. Also hanging on through the Atlantic gales are those hardy wildflowers – Thrift – with its pretty pink flowers and dark green leaves, and Common Scurvygrass, a white-flowered plant that has fleshy leaves, just right for surviving the salt spray and harsh conditions of its habitat.
Thrift
The island that is probably the closest to land is Dalkey Island – Oileán Dheilginse (Thorn island), a small (25 acre) Special Protection Area. Part of a group that includes Maiden Rock and Lamb Island, the low-lying island is just 300m away from Coliemore Harbour with a deep channel lying between them, the location of the annual fund-raising Dalkey Island swim, if the currents are favourable. At low tide, Lamb Island is connected to Dalkey Island by a series of rocks. This is an area steeped in history and archaeologists have discovered evidence which has led to a belief that the first human arrivals date from around 3,000 BCE. Objects that have survived the gales and storms are carved stone crosses and the remains of St Begnet’s church. There is also a Martello Tower together with a gun battery, part of a defence system built in the early 19th century to counter a Napoleonic invasion of the British Empire, Ireland being part of that realm at the time.
Dalkey island
The natural world is well represented by birdlife with both the Common Tern and the Arctic Tern nesting on the island and its surrounding rocks and islets. Both species are delightful to watch, having narrow wings and forked tails, silhouettes that have given the Common Tern the name of Sea Swallow. These birds are summer visitors to our shores, the Common Terns flying all the way from south-western Africa, whereas the Arctic Terns migrate from the faraway Antarctic. A third member of the family – and the rarest – is the Roseate Tern, a species that is closely monitored by Birdwatch Ireland(4) who have created a special breeding programme at this location. Other birds commonly found on the islands are Oystercatchers, Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls with Turnstones, doing what their names suggest and galloping along the seashore, their legs just a blur. In autumn and winter, Cormorants, Curlew and Shags roost on the island for the night, in the company of other inhabitants – goats and rabbits. In the surrounding clear blue waters, there is a colony of seals.
Cormorant
Plants on the low-lying island have a battle with the often harsh maritime elements but there are a few rarities such as Sea Stork’s-bill, itself a very small plant that hugs the ground, the attractive yellow-flowered Biting Stonecrop and also Western Clover, a species that has a marked preference for dry, coastal ground and is only ever to be found within 100 metres of the sea. Access to the island is by a short boat trip from Coliemore Harbour and there are also cruises around the island from Dún Laoghaire(5) from April to September. If you are lucky you may see a pod of bottlenose dolphins accompanying the boat on its voyage.
1 https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/visitor/dursey-island-cable-car
2 https://www.valentiaferry.com/
