Valentia is one of my favourite islands. It lies just to the west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry and can be accessed by car ferry from Renard Point to Knightstown or by a bridge from Portmagee. The bridge was opened in 1970. The island is 7 miles long by 3 miles wide.
Car Ferry at Knightstown
The name, which has nothing to do with Valencia in Spain, is a corruption of the name of the adjacent sound - Beal Inse. The old name for the island was Oilean Dairbhre, which means "island of the oak forest". The highest point on the island is Geokaun at 266 metres. The current population is around 650 people.
The main settlement is at Knightstown and there is a heritage centre there along with shops and cafes. In the 19th Century the island was owned by Trinity College, Dublin and the Fitzgerald family who were the Knights of Kerry. Knightstown is named after them. It has a planned layout and was designed by the Scottish architect Alexander Nimmo. Tourism is a major employer on Valentia.
Knightstown
Coffee shop at Knightstown
Sculptures in the small park at Knightstown
St John the Baptist Church at Knightstown
Fountain decorated with sculptures and mosaics in the churchyard of St John's Church
There are 8 mosaics, which depict the Lamb of God, Our Lady & the Christ child, a knight on horseback, a Seineboat, a salmon, a lifebelt (to represent the Lifeboat Station), a lighthouse and the Cable Station with a cross-section of cable. The four stones were collected from the four corners of Valentia. The carved faces on them are facing out to represent Munster, Leinster, Connaught and Ulster. They were carved by Alan Hall from Knightstown.
Stone picnic bench at Knightstown
The stone benches are cold to sit on for much of the year but at least they won't blow away in a storm!
Boats at Knightstown
Clocktower and weighbridge, Knightstown
This building was commissioned by the Knight of Kerry in the late 19th century. The weighbridge was used to weigh coal for shipment to several nearby lighthouses. The clocktower ceased to work in 1922 when the Free State army shot at it. The building was repaired in 1973 and the clock was replaced by a one-faced clock in 1983. In 1992 a four-faced clock was installed. The bronze bell from the old clock was restored in 2016.
Royal Valentia Hotel, Knightstown
Cable Station: Valentia was the eastern terminus for the first transatlantic telegraph from 1866. The first permanent cable came ashore at Foillhommerum Bay on the south west coast of Valentia. In 1868 operations moved to a new building in Knightstown, which was designed by the architect Thomas N. Deane. The cable station also provided accommodation for single members of staff. Blocks of family houses were built on both sides of it. Most of the staff were English. At its peak in 1920, more than 220 staff handled about 3,000 messages a day. Valentia Transatlantic Cable Station closed in 1966.
Former cable station, Knightstown
Former Cable Station houses
Former Cable Station houses
Cable sculpture, Knightstown
This commemorates James Graves from England, who was the Superintendent of the Cable Station from 1865 until his retirment in 1909.
Cable sculpture, Knightstown
The inscription on the plaque says:
Connection
This marine bollard made from native stone, stands to commemorate the first successful physical connection between Europe and North America in 200 million years. On July 27 1866, the Great Eastern completed the laying of the transatlantic cable between Valentia Island, Ireland and Heart's Content, Newfoundland. The cable changed the world by revolutionising global communications and pioneering the information superhighway we know today.
3071 kilometers across the ocean, at Heart's Content Cable Station, stands an identical bollard. The other end of this cable is attached to that bollard and extends into the sea there. The bollard represents not only the physical connection of the cable but also the centuries of migration and cultural exchange these two continents share.
In the 19th century there was a contrast between prosperous Knightstown and poorer Chapeltown in the centre of the island where most of the people were engaged in fishing and farming. Large quantities of mackerel were caught until 1930 when the stocks declined and the United States, who were the main customer, imposed import tariffs.
The RNLI Lifeboat Station on the island was opened in 1865 and is still operational but the Met Office's Eireann's Valentia Observatory, which is included in the UK Met Office's Shipping Forecast, is located at Cahersiveen on the mainland.
Lifeboat Station in Knightstown
Plaque commemorating the opening of the Lifeboat Station on 14th June 1997
The Lifeboat Station was opened by Mr Clayton Love Jnr, who was Deputy Chairman of the RNLI at the time.
Old public water supply point
In June 1847, during the Great Famine, the manager of the Valentia Slab Company laid on a public water supply for the benefit of those people passing through Knightstown. A trough was also provided nearby, so that animals could drink from it.
Building housing the old rocket car, Knightstown
The rocket car was used from 1902-1989 to transport lifesaving equipment for the Valentia Coast Life Saving Service (later renamed the Coast and Cliff Rescue Service). When it was no longer needed it was given to the Valentia Heritage Centre and was restored by Knightstown Tidy Towns under the direction of Chairman Michael F. Egan
This anchor is from the 2,800 tons four-masted sailing barque Crompton, which was built in Liverpool by T. Roydon & Son in 1890. It was wrecked near Valentia on 23rd November 1910. The anchor was recovered from the wreck in the summer of 1971 by a team of divers.
There is a working slate quarry at Geokaun above Chapeltown that has the Grotto of the Virgin Mary & St Brigid high up above its cavernous entrance. The quarry was operational from 1816-1884 and 1900-1911, although it was in decline after 1870, due in part to competition from Wales. It was reopened in 1998. The grotto was placed there in 1954. The slate, which is old red sandstone, was in demand for fish slabs, dairy shelving and water tanks, as well as roofing and paving. The House of Commons in London is roofed with Valentia slate and the Public Record Office in London had 25 miles of shelving made from it.
I walked out on a very foggy morning to Bray Head on the south west end of the island where there is a ruined lookout tower and the cliffs are 240 metres above sea level.
In 1913 the estates of the Knights of Kerry and Trinity College Dublin on Valentia were taken over by the Congested Districts Board. Most of Glanleam House, which had been the residence of the Knights of Kerry on Valentia was demolished and the family moved to England. There is still a subtropical garden at Glanleam House, which is open to the public. Many rare southern hemisphere shrubs were planted at Glanleam House from the 1830s by Peter Fitzgerald, who was the 19th Knight of Kerry. Glanleam has the only sandy beach on Valentia.
Around 150 fossilised tetrapod (primitive vertebrate) tracks were discovered on the north coast of the island in 1993.
Lighthouse at Cromwell Point
- built in 1841 and automated in 1947
The Altazamuth Stone at Knightstown
This marks the location of the Altazamuth instrument that determined the precise longitude of Knightstown in 1862. The measurement was taken to determine the longitude of multiple locations along the latitude of 52 degrees north from Valentia to Omsk in Siberia. Telegraph equipment was connected to the telegraph office in Knightstown to synchronize the timing of astronomical observations at this location with simultaneous observations by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Maude Jane Delap who was born in 1866 in Dungloe, moved to Valentia when she was 8 and lived there for the rest of her life. Her father Alexander Delap was a vicar but she became a self-taught marine biologist. She is known for her pioneering work in the field of jellyfish research and she was the first person to successfully breed jellyfish in captivity. in 1906, after the death of Alexander Delap, the family moved to Reenellen House in Knightstown. Maude had a laboratory at Reenellan House, where she conducted her experiments. In 1928 she had a species of sea anemone named after her (Edwardsia Delapiae), which she discovered living near the Lifeboat Pier in Knightstown. Maude died in 1953. There is a plaque in the shape of a jellyfish to commemorate her life and work on Valentia. The plaque is located on the corner of Reenellen and Market Street.
Maude Jane Delap's plaque
Maude Jane Delap's plaque
No comments:
Post a Comment