Mayo’s islands are offshore jewels

Offshore Jewels


Some are large and thriving, others tiny and uninhabited, but Mayo’s islands are all charming,
as Áine Ryan outlines

THE COASTAL contours of  Mayo whimsically lure the visitor from one breathtaking scene to another – dizzying cliff-faces, undulant seashores, miniature patchwork fields pockmarked with abandoned rocks; anarchic white horses, the playthings of the relentless ocean. Dramatic vistas of the islands. Mysterious and beckoning outposts of life on the edge. Worlds apart.
There’s Clare, Inishturk, Inishbiggle, Dorinish, the Inishkeas and the biggest of them all, Achill, connected to the mainland by its famous Michael Davitt bridge for over a century. There are dozens more too: Achillbeg, Caher, Inishcuttle, Inishlyre; many of them – now uninhabited – are like Fabergé eggs cluttering the inner waters of scenic Clew Bay.   
In the years prior to the Great Famine of the 1840s, over 35,000 people lived on the rosary of islands that surround the coast of Ireland. Every tiny rock and craggy hulk, every remote outpost that jutted out of the ocean was farmed and cultivated. Each sandy shoreline was fished and trawled by a people who lived on the edge of survival. Communities sang together, and wept together. They emigrated to the potato fields of Scotland. They sailed in coffin ships to America.
It wasn’t until the latter half of the 20th century that the geographic disadvantage endemic to these communities was significantly redressed with the introduction of progressive Government policy. Over the last two decades or so, there has been a veritable revolution of changes with the introduction of electricity, telecommunications, including broadband internet connections.
In many cases, the tractor has replaced the horse and donkey; imported coal or oil has obviated the need for hand-cutting the turf; the open fire and range have been replaced by the electric or gas cooker; the reek of hay has given way to the silage pit. 
On the other hand, there are many instances of milk still being churned to make the butter; the scent of soda bread wafting from the oven; ridges of potatoes rising from ancient fields; the currach (canoe) bopping lightly into coves. Moreover, the sound of ceol agus craic (music and fun), the beat of the bodhrΡn (drum), the stamp of traditional dancing, the lilt of the sean-nós song still echo across these islands.

Achill
THE largest island off the Irish coast, Achill is one of the most spectacular and beautiful places in Mayo. Jutting out into the Atlantic, the Achill landscape has been carved by the crashing of the Atlantic against its rugged shore and now features some of Ireland’s most dramatic mountains and soaring cliffs.
The extent of the beauty of Achill Island is unparalleled in Ireland and the island boasts five blue flag beaches, the most for any area in Ireland. It also boasts the highest sea cliffs in Europe with the Croaghaun Cliffs rising to 665 metres, and panoramic views of the island can be viewed from the top of Minaun Heights.
Achill has a long association with tourism, with visitors flocking to the island since the late 19th century. Among the many famous people who have been inspired by the nature of the people of the island are German writer, Heinrich Boll, former winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, novelists Graham Greene, JM Synge, and Ernie O’Malley. On his first visit, Belfast artist Paul Henry instantly fell in love with the landscape and decided to remain on the island, allegedly tearing up his return rail ticket and throwing the fragments into the sea.
Achill, like most communities on the western seaboard, suffered many years of hardship with famine and emigration scarring the landscape. Nowhere is this more evident than the Deserted Village on the base of Slievemore, where the remains of a whole village abandoned during the Great Famine can be seen today. The Mass Rock near Keem Bay is another example of the hardship suffered by the people and the outline of lazy beds on the hills and fields show the dependence the people had on potatoes for survival. Other historical sites on the island include Grace O’Malley’s tower at Kildavnat and the Megalithic tombs which date back to the third century BC. 

Clare Island
THE dramatic outline of Clare island has been likened to ‘a great sleeping whale guarding the entrance to Clew Bay’. For the visitor to Mayo, its plateaued head suddenly rises into the skyline on the approach road to Westport, in dramatic contrast to the pyramidal peak of holy mountain, Croagh Patrick.  
According to the Census of 1831, Clare Island – which measures five miles by three – supported a population of over 1,600 people. Around 120 people now inhabit the island, with many more owning holiday homes. Over the summer months, the two family-run ferry services shuttle thousands of visitors and day-trippers to the island from Roonagh pier, beyond Louisburgh.
Clare Island is a haven for bird-watchers, archaeologists and historians. It was the subject of a groundbreaking natural history survey, The Clare Island Survey, led by the famous Robert Lloyd Praeger, at the beginning of the 20th century. For many decades afterwards, visitors to the then isolated island were called ‘praegers’ by islanders.
A new comparative study was undertaken in recent years by the Royal Irish Academy which led to the conservation of significant wall-paintings in the medieval Cisterscian abbey, reputedly the burial place of famous pirate queen, Granuaile, or Grace O’Malley.

Inishturk
SITUATED nine miles from Roonagh pier, Inishturk is Mayo’s most isolated island. It lies to the south of both Clare Island and monastic island, Caher, which, according to lore, St Patrick visited by travelling through a sub-marine tunnel from Croagh Patrick.
Inishturk is widely renowned for its warm welcomes and its passion for traditional music and sean-nós singing. It’s not surprising that the islanders are proud custodians of their culture. Nowadays it has a population of around 65 and attracts hundreds of visitors each summer.
In 1851, the entire population of 250 was evicted by the landlord, the notorious Earl of Lucan. Their houses were levelled at gunpoint and they were transported on a British navy gunboat to the workhouse in Westport. The plight of these desperate and starving people was highlighted in the British parliament by the MP for Mayo, Mr Ousley Higgins. Ironically, the Inishturk people had the last laugh, one banished family after another returned.
Inishturk harbour nestles in a natural inlet on the south-eastern face of the 4.5km long island. Its beautiful winding walkways and boreens provide a panoramic pastiche sweeping from Killary fjord, the mountainous medley of Mweelrea and the Twelve Pins, to the Silver Strand, Croagh Patrick and distant Achill.

Inishbiggle
TO the east of Achill, and in the shelter of the Mayo coastline, lies the tiny inshore island of Inishbiggle. Only two kilometres long and a mere 400 yards from Bullsmouth pier on Achill, it was ironically one of the country’s most isolated islands. The currents that separate it from Achill are the most dangerous in western Europe. However, these days a regular ferry service operates from Doran’s Point on the island to the mainland in Ballycroy.
Inishbiggle now has a tiny, ageing population of less than 30 people. It is Irish-speaking and is also the only island which can boast having its very own Protestant church – a dramatic remnant of 19th century evangelism.
During the 19th century, Inishbiggle came under the ownership of the Achill Mission, founded by Reverend Edward Nangle, and known locally as ‘the colony’.
Other than a post office, there are effectively no services on the island. Over a decade ago, families with children of  school-going age were forced to migrate to Achill, or the nearby mainland, to ensure education for their children. A 20-year campaign to develop a cable-car service was abandoned some years ago, much to the chagrin and despair of the dwindling community.   

Inishkeas
Uninhabited since the 1930s, the Inishkeas are a series of low-lying islands off the coast of the Mullet peninsula, in north Mayo. The islands are a small archipelago encompassing Inis Glóra, Inishkea North and South, and Dubh OileΡn Mór (Duvillaun). Monasteries flourished on all of these islands in the early Christian period. Reputedly, St Brendan the Navigator – who sailed the Atlantic in a leather boat – had links with Inis Glóra, as did the fabled four Children of Lir, who were doomed to wander the waters of Ireland for 900 years as enchanted singing swans. Reputedly, they spent their last 300 here, before regaining human form and withering to dust.
The Inishkeas had a thriving fishing community until disaster struck on October 28, 1927.  Known as the Cleggan Disaster, and immortalised in a poem by the acclaimed poet, Richard Murphy, ten of the 25 fishermen who were lost along the western seaboard were from these islands.
There were only two survivors, and the islands were abandoned shortly afterwards. Nowadays, the Inishkeas are internationally significant as a major birdlife sanctuary. It is estimated that about half of the Irish wintering population of Barnacle geese make these islands their home.

Dorinish
ONCE owned by former Beatle, the late John Lennon, Dorinish Island is but one of the maze of islands that clutter inner Clew Bay. Nineteen acres in size and originally owned by the Westport Harbour Board, the island was used as a piloting station for ships navigating cargo into Westport quay.
Strapped for cash, the board advertised the sale of Dorinish back in 1967: ‘Island off Ireland for sale’. Lennon saw the advertisement and sent Alistair Taylor from Apple over to the auction. He bought it for £1,700.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono sailed to the island later that year and reputedly stayed there in a specially-commissioned multi-coloured gypsy caravan. The story goes that the couple’s sojourn coincided with the nesting season and that Yoko Ono, who was sporting a beehive bun, was attacked by seagulls gathering materials for their nests.
After John’s untimely and tragic death, Yoko Ono sold the island in 1984 and donated the proceeds to an Irish orphanage. In the interim, with Lennon’s permission, it had been used as a hippy colony for a while from 1969.