Island 346 - Long Island, County Cork

Long Island or Inis Fada in Irish, is located in Roaringwater Bay in the south west of County Cork.  The island is 3.5 miles long but less than half a mile wide, hence its name.  It can be accessed across the half a mile wide Long Island Channel by a 10 minute ferry journey from the quay at Colla, which is located a mile and a half to the south west of the small town of Skull/Schull.  The ferry is well signposted from Skull and there is a large informal car park at Colla.  There are only 2 ferries a day each way and the cost of a return ticket for visitors in 2016 was €7.  On a weekday in the summer you get nearly 8 hours on the island and at the weekends you get nearly 6 hours.  This is more than enough time to explore, as there is no café, no shop, no church, no public toilet, no seat to sit on and no shelter anywhere if it rains, which it so often does in County Cork!  Inadvertently I picked a grey but largely dry day. 

Long Island Ferry at the Pier on Long Island

The island has a permanent population of less than 10 people but in 1841 it was home to 336 people.  There are far more cars than there are residents but many of them are no longer in working order.  Some of the island's houses are holiday homes for people who live elsewhere.  Almost all the houses on the island were built by the Congested Districts Board at the end of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th.  There are only 2 designs: two storeyed farm houses and smaller houses with attic windows.  The purpose of the Congested Districts Board, which existed from 1891-1923, was to alleviate poverty by paying for public works such as piers to assist the fishing industry, modernising agricultural practices and sponsoring local factories to provide employment.  There are about 30 houses on Long Island, only half of which are currently inhabited.

The pier and harbour are on the sheltered north side of the island and in the middle of it. I started my visit by walking along a road, which turns into a track and then a boggy footpath (with stepping stones) right to the Beacon at the eastern end of the island.  The last few metres to the beacon are across bare rocks.  However there is a rope that you can hang on to if necessary.  Some of the holes in the rocks have been filled in with concrete.  Apparently the remains of a copper mine can also be seen there, although I'm not sure if I spotted them.  Blackberry bushes line the road, track and path and I ate a fair few on my walk.

House on the road to the Beacon

 Long Island Beacon

 

The Beacon

 

 The Beacon

 

 "Path" to the Beacon across the rocks

 

 Sea cave at the east end of the island

 

 Long Island Beacon

 

Rocks at the eastern end of the island

 

I think this might be the old copper mine

I then walked back to the harbour where I managed to acquire the company of two collies - a black and white one, who I later found out was called Daisy and a brown and white half grown puppy, who I was later told is Daisy's offspring.  I think the puppy's name is Candy/Gandy or something similar but I may have misheard.  I didn't work out if it was male or female.  I quite like dogs, which is just as well, as I was stuck with them for the next 4 hours!  They followed me along the road to the western end of the island and on the way I acquired a 3rd dog.  This one was the puppy's father and was also brown and white and called, I think Cary.  He was the most sober of the 3 and spent most of the time walking quietly behind me, while the other 2 ran up and down and occasionally tried to jump up at me.  One of the older dogs also seemed to enjoy squeezing under the fences into the fields and barking at the cows to annoy them.  They also seemed to enjoy scaring an elderly lady's many cats and her Jack Russell terriers too.  Daisy kept bringing me sticks and bits of smelly seaweed to throw, so that she could retrieve them.  I soon tired of this game but she didn't.

Cary, Daisy and Candy

 

 An old boat

 

 The Old School - now derelict

 

Ruined house

The dogs were kind enough to lead me down a narrow path leading off from the road to a very small cove on the south side of the island.  Someone had created some rough stone steps, so getting down onto the beach was easy and the dogs enjoyed a paddle.

The sign at the beginning of the path says "Coosnagulling".  I have no idea what the word means.  The dogs are waiting for me to follow them.

 

The stone steps leading to the cove

 

 

The dogs enjoying a paddle in the cove

 

The Steps back up

The road ends at two beaches, one to the north and one to the south.  At this point I met a man who told me that I could do a circular walk along the cliffs at the western end of the island.  This was well worth doing, although I gave up attempts to eat my lunch at the western end, as Daisy and Gandy were determined that I should share it with them!  I was a bit concerned that the puppy might fall off the cliff while it was running around but it didn't.

 Looking east up the south coast

 

 Goat Island from Long Island

 Goat Island from the western end of Long Island

 Geos at the western end of Long Island

 

Small cairn at the western end of Long Island

 

 

 Beach on the north coast

 

Cairn at the western end with gorse and heather in flower

 

 

Another cairn at the western end

 

On my way back to the pier as I passed a cottage the man I had met on the beach earlier asked me in for a cup of tea.  This was most welcome as it was beginning to rain, I had another 3 hours to fill and I thought the dogs might get bored and wander off.  I had a long chat to the man, who turned out to live in England but had owned the cottage on Long Island for many years.

The rain had stopped by the time I left but the dogs were still patiently waiting for me outside the cottage.  The puppy disappeared at some point on the road back to the pier but Daisy and Cary continued to follow me, as I walk back up the path to the Beacon and then back down to the pier.  By this time I was quite tired but couldn't find anywhere to sit where the Daisy wouldn't jump on me.  In the end I found an upturned boat seat on the pier.  Then a man arrived and offered to take me in his boat to neighbouring Goat Island.  However sadly it was too late in the day and I didn't have another free day during my week's holiday.  I had a chat to him and he offered me two herrings he had caught but I had to admit I wasn't any good at gutting fish and so declined his kind offer. 

The dogs and the people I met made my visit to Long Island memorable.  However my advice is to only go on a dry and warm day and to take all the food and drink you need with you.  And to try and stay out of sight of the dogs, unless you want them as companions all day.  Being followed round by the dogs was a bit like having the minders you get in Communist countries who follow you everywhere and won't let you out of their sight!

I had plenty of time to admire the flowers during my 6 hours on the island: sheeps bit scabious, sea mayweed, bell and ling heather, fuchsia, crocosmia, self-heal, birds foot trefoil, tormentil, honeysuckle, ragwort, thistles, thrift, gorse and yarrow were all in flower.  I also saw speckled wood and meadow brown butterflies.