A lifetime of Islands: Island 400 - Coney Island/Inishmulclohy, County Sligo

My 400th island! When I started this blog, I never thought that there were 400 islands you can visit around the coasts of Britain and Ireland but now I realise that there are probably at least 500.

Coney Island or Inishmulclohy is a tidal island off the coast of County Sligo and close to the seaside town of Strandhill. Coney is an old name for a rabbit and the island was so called because of the large population of rabbits that lived there. They may still live there but they were all hiding when I visited on an overcast day in early September 2017. The only mammals I saw were a dog, a field of cows and three donkeys. Coney Island is low lying and approximately 1.25 miles from north to south and 1 mile from east to west at its widest point.

Access to Coney Island is down a narrow lane off the R292 half way between Sligo and Strandhill. There is space to park about 8 cars at the end of the tarmac road. It is possible to drive across the sand to Coney Island and a couple of cars made the crossing while I was walking back from the island. While I wouldn't recommend driving across, you can't get lost, as there are 14 large stone marker posts at regular intervals marking the recommended route across Dorrins Strand, which is about 1.25 miles long.

I arrived at the crossing point about two and a half hours before low tide but there were still lots of pools of ankle deep water covering the strand. There is large noticeboard at the start of the crossing point, which warns of the dangers of the incoming tide. It also gives numbers, which you can text from UK or Republic of Ireland mobiles and you get a quick automatic reply, which tells you the safe crossing times for that day. I crossed to Coney Island wearing a pair of plastic crocs and carrying my walking boots. By the time I returned from Coney Island to the mainland it was approaching low tide and I was able to do the crossing in walking boots without getting wet feet.

There are several Coney Islands off Ireland but this is supposedly the one after which the Coney Island in the borough of Brooklyn in New York is named. The story is that Captain Peter O'Connor, who was master of the schooner Arethusa, sailed between Sligo and New York in the late 18th or early 19th centuries and on seeing the island off Brooklyn it reminded him of Sligo's Coney Island, so he named it after it. The New York Coney Island is a seaside resort famous for its amusement parks. Coney Island in County Sligo has one pub (closed when I visited on a Wednesday morning) and about a dozen cottages. There is also a ruined farmhouse and a ruined school. In 2011 the residential population of the island was 2 (down from 6 in 2006 and 124 in 1841), so presumably the other houses are all holiday homes.

Once on Coney Island you can follow the road north to the village and then along the north coast to the west coast. There is also a track from the village direct to the sandy bay on the west side of the island. I didn't walk as far round as the beach on the west side but I did walk to the west coast to look for some fossils on the beach. Thanks to my GPS and the setter of a geocaching earthcache I found the fossils easily and they are remarkably clear. I have not been able to find out what they are yet but they are the best fossils I have ever seen in situ on a beach - see photos below. There were plenty of juicy blackberries to eat in the island's hedgerows.

There are information boards at various locations around the village identifying wild flowers and sea creatures to be found on Coney Island and in the rock pools on its beaches. There is also a map of the island showing places of interest. One of the places marked is St Patrick's Wishing Chair. However the map wasn't sufficiently detailed to show the location clearly and there was no photo of it, so I didn't know what I was looking for and therefore I didn't find it. Having looked at photos on the internet it looks like it is in a field but I still don't know its exact location.

Artist Neal Grieg runs art workshops (painting and drawing) in a small studio on Coney Island. On the day I visited I didn't see another person all the time I was on the island.

From the north coast of Coney Island you can clearly see the back of The Metal Man on Perch Rock. He was put there in 1821 and is dressed as a Royal Navy officer. He is pointing his arm to show the safest entrance to Sligo Harbour. He has an identical twin at Tramore in County Waterford. He is 3.7 metres tall and is maintained as a lighthouse by the Commissioners for Irish Lights.

Coney Island features in Sebastian Barry's novel The Secret Scripture, which is about the unhappy life of a 100 year old lady in an Irish mental hospital. Heavily pregnant in the 1940s with an illegitimate baby and having been rejected by her in-laws in Sligo, she walks back to her hut in Strandhill at night along the beach. In the dark she loses her bearings and ends up walking across to Coney Island where she gives birth to a son. Exhausted, she then falls asleep holding the baby in her arms but when she wakes up the baby has disappeared. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens in the end.

Badgers colonised Coney Island in the 1970s and they are apparently lighter in colour than their mainland relatives and they have white noses.