A lifetime of Islands: Island 362 - Aughinish, County Clare

Wednesday 17 May 2017

Island 362 - Aughinish, County Clare

Aughinish is a small island located off the north coast of County Clare about 6 miles to the west of the town of Kinvarra. However the only land access to the island is by a road causeway from County Galway. It is thought that the island was joined to County Clare at New Quay until 1st November 1755 when a tsunami caused by the Lisbon Earthquake separated it from the mainland. The earthquake measured up to 9 on the Richter Scale and lasted for between 3 and 6 minutes, which is a very long time for an earthquake (they usually last seconds not minutes)

Aughinish was a true island for 50 years and then a causeway was built by the British c1804-10 to give them access to the Martello Tower, which they built on the north east coast of Aughinish to protect against a possible invasion of Ireland by the French.

Aughinish is 2 km from east to west and about 1.2km from north to south at its widest point. There are about 20 houses on the island. There is a ruined church and graveyard in the south west corner of the island. I didn't have time to walk to these but could see them in the distance from the end of the road at the southern tip of the island. I did walk out to the Martello Tower to find a geocache. When I got out of my car to take a photo of one of the more attractive cottages on the island, a neighbour came out to ask if I was lost. That wasn't such an odd question to ask, as signposting in Ireland is a bit hit and miss and I did not pass any signposts at all to Aughinish.

The parts of Aughinish which aren't farmed had plenty of thrift and birds foot trefoil in flower when I visited in early May 2017. Skylarks were singing overhead.