A lifetime of Islands: June 2018

Saturday 30 June 2018

Island 414 - Barranagh Island (Oileán Bearanach), County Mayo

Barranagh Island (Oileán Bearanach in Irish) is located in Blacksod Bay, about half way down the east side of the Mullet Peninsula in the north west of County Mayo. It is a low lying uninhabited tidal island and is approximately half a mile from east to west by 500 metres from north to south and the highest point is only 7 metres above sea level. It is joined to the mainland at low tide by a shingle tombolo.

The island is obviously sometimes used for grazing animals but I didn't see any farm animals when I visited on an overcast morning in mid May 2018. There weren't many wild flowers in evidence but there was some sea mayweed in flower.

Looking north across the shingle tombolo towards the mainland

Bath filled with some unappetising water!

Start of the grazing land

Drainage Ditch

Abandoned farm machinery

Looking south

Thursday 28 June 2018

Island 413 - Roman Island, Westport, County Mayo

Roman Island is located immediately to the west of Westport Quay. It is no longer an island, as it is now linked by a causeway to the mainland at Westport Quay. It is shown as an island on an Ordnance Survey map of c1837-42 but sometime before 1913 a causeway was built out to it and the whole island was enlarged on its north side. Sometime after 1913 more land was added on the north west side. The causeway acts as a quay and there were several large boats there when I visited.

Roman Island isn't the most attractive island in the world, as it has a large dry pet food factory in the middle of it, which opened in 2016. However the western end of the island has a large free car park and several footpaths, which seem to be popular with local people. The original island is easy to spot, as it is a low hill while the more recent land that has been added is very flat. There is a small wood on the highest part of the island, which had lots of bluebells flowering in it when I visited in early May 2018.

Roman Island also currently has a coastguard station, a sports pitch and the Clew Bay Heritage Centre, all located on the north west side.

On a 25" scale Ordnance Survey map of 1888-1913 a bathing house and Bath Hotel are shown in the south west of the island. The bathing house offered hot salt water seaweed baths. The Bath Hotel closed in the late 1950s and had been demolished by the late 1990s. The stone jetty marked on the map 1888-1913 map is still there.

Looking east from the car park towards the pet food factory

Heritage Centre

Coastguard Station

Original Roman Island

Looking west from the top of the hill towards the car park

Wood with bluebells on the original Roman Island

Looking east down the south coast

Old jetty - looking west from the site of the old bath house

Looking north towards the original Roman Island

Island 412 - Bartraw, County Mayo

Bartraw is a small low lying grass covered tidal island located 6 miles to the west of the town of Westport in County Mayo, a mile east of the village of Leckanvy and on the southern side of Clew Bay. It is linked to the mainland by a 1 km long sand and pebble tombolo. For most of the length of the tombolo there is a large grass covered sand dune. However at the northern end there are a couple of sections, which are only comprised of pebbles, which are presumably covered at high spring tides and during storms, as there are no plants growing on these sections. The island is about 300 metres in diameter and the highest point on the island is 13 metres above sea level.

I visited on a sunny but breezy early evening in May and it was a popular place for local dog walkers. There is a large free car park at the landward end. There is a network of footpaths through the dunes and on the island itself. The tombolo's pebbles are nearly all small, rounded and a pleasing variety of colours, including a few that were light green.

Bartraw is part of the Clew Bay Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Clew Bay is famous for its many islands and 1981 it was described as follows in the National Heritage Inventory: Areas of Scientific Interest in Ireland:

"The classical drowned drumlin landscape showing the sea's erosional action on a drumlin swarm which was laid down by the second of advance of ice in the glacial period. Nowhere else is this type of landscape developed on such a scale nor with such variation."

Drumlins are long, smooth, oval and streamlined shaped hummocks or hills formed and shaped by ice sheets or glaciers while the ice was moving. They are usually composed of boulder clay or glacial till and most often found in large groups (as is the case in Clew Bay) known as fields or swarms. They often have a steeper side and a more tapered side.

Bartraw from the tombolo

Looking north towards Bartraw

Bartraw

Looking north from Bartraw towards Inishdaugh

Croagh Patrick in the clouds - from Bartaw

Croagh Patrick from Bartraw

Pebbles, including an unusual green one

Looking north towards Bartraw

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Island 411 - Clare Island, County Mayo

Clare Island (Cliara in Irish) is located 3.5 miles off the coast of County Mayo. It is approximately 4.5 miles from east to west by 2.4 miles from north to south. The highest point on the island is Knockmore at 462 metres above sea level. In 2016 the population was 159, down from a peak of 1615 people in 1841 before the Great Famine.

Clare Island is served by a passenger ferry, which runs every day from Roonagh Quay, which is located 10 miles to the west of the town of Westport. The crossing time is about 25 minutes. The year round ferry is run by O'Grady's. In the summer the Inishturk ferry company O'Malley's also run ferries to Clare Island.

A map of Clare Island can be downloaded from the official Clare Island website. I couldn't see any leaflet that included a map on the ferry, so was glad I had printed out the one from the website in advance.

There is plenty of accommodation for visitors on Clare Island: guesthouses, self-catering, a hostel and a campsite. There is a shop at Kill but no café on the island. There are 2 bars/restaurants: one at the Community Centre and Sailor's Bar next to the hostel but neither were open when I visited on a Monday in early May 2018.

There are a number of historical or archaeological sites on Clare Island: 2 holy wells (one at Kill and one at Capnagower - I looked for both of them but couldn't see either of them); a megalithic tomb; several fulacht fia (burnt mounds); a standing stone at Ballytoohy More (I couldn't see this either) and a couple of promontory forts. I did find the standing stone in the grounds of the abbey at Kill.

The lighthouse on the northern tip of Clare Island and at the entrance to Clew Bay, was first built in 1806 by the Marquis of Sligo. It was partially destroyed by a fire in 1813 and the present lighthouse was built alongside the remains of the first tower in 1818. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1965, partly because it is so high up on the cliff that it is often not visible due to mist. It is not open to the public but you can walk up to the perimeter wall.

Lighthouse

Cliffs on the north coast near the lighthouse

There is a 12th century Cistercian abbey at Kill in the middle of the south coast of Clare Island. It was rebuilt c1460. It was locked, so I didn't go in but later in the day, while I was waiting for the ferry back to Roonagh, I was chatting to a couple of ladies who said they had got the key for it from the nearby shop. It has some impressive medieval wall and roof paintings. It also contains the tomb of the O'Malley family and is said to be the burial place of the pirate queen Gráinne (Granuaile) O’Malley, who lived on Clare Island in the 16th century.

Abbey

Memorial to the 11 men who died when their Sunderland Flying Boat crashed off Clare Island in 1943

Standing Stone in the Abbey Graveyard

Gráinne O’Malley's Castle, which was built in the 16th century, is located next to the harbour where the ferry docks. It is ruined and was locked up when I visited.

Grainne O'Malley's Castle

Racing gigs and Grainne O'Malley's Castle

Adjacent to the abbey is the more modern Church of the Sacred Heart, which was built 1860-62 but added to in the 20th century. The church was unlocked, so I had a look inside.

Church of the Sacred Heart at Kill

Inside the Church of the Sacred Heart

Stained Glass Window in the Church of the Sacred Heart

A Napoleonic Signal Tower was constructed on the western coast of Clare Island 1804-6 as a precaution against a possible invasion by the French. The one on Clare Island is part of a chain along the coast of Ireland. After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 the signal towers were abandoned and the one on Clare Island is in a ruined state. Low cloud descended as I approached the tower, so I couldn't take any clear photos of it.

Signal Tower in the mist

Signal Tower

West coast of Clare Island

About half way along the road between Maum and Fawnglass there are lots of tree stumps on either side of the road. These are the remains of an ancient Scots pine forest, which grew on Clare Island about 7,500 years ago. The forest may have died out due to climate change or a rise in the water table or due to felling by the island's early inhabitants. They were preserved by the acidic bog but exposed by extensive peat cutting in the last 200 years. The whole island was once covered in trees, including the top of Knockmore. However due to a rise in the population all the trees had been felled by the mid 19th century.