Fenit Island (Fenit rhymes with "seen it") is linked to the mainland of County Kerry at the village of Fenit by a sand tombolo. The island encloses and shelters Barrow Harbour, which is a Special Area of Conservation. St Brendan the Navigator was bon on Fenit Island c484 AD. In the 16th century a castle was built on the island by the FitzMaurice clan and the ruins of it are still standing today. At the time of the Great Famine in the 1840s 600 people lived on Fenit Island's 440 acres and there were 2 churches and a graveyard. Vehicle access to the island for the current residents of Fenit Island is via the beach on the east side of the tombolo at low tide.
Land on Fenit Island is currently owned and farmed by 9 different people. Local people and visitors had enjoyed free access to the perimeter path around the island for many years until one of the island's landowners put up high fences preventing access to the path to the castle c2008. Several other landowners subsequently erected similar high fences around other sections of the coastal path. Local people held a protest walk and campaigned for years to get the fences removed. In 2017 Kerry County Council served enforcement notices on the landowners giving them 8 weeks to remove the fences. In January 2022 a judge ruled that the fences should be removed.
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