The Great Blasket Island

An Blascaod Mor lies a short crossing off the end of the Dingle Peninsula, the largest of a group of islands strung out into the Atlantic. A village of stone houses stood on the slope above the landing slip until the last residents moved to the mainland in 1953, and the ruins are still there, roofless, with grass grown over the field walls behind them. The island produced a run of Irish-language memoirs written by people who lived in those houses, which is the reason most visitors have heard of it. A grass track follows the spine to the far end, open ground with sea on both sides, and grey seals haul out on the white strand below the village.

History

The island has been lived on at times for centuries, the earliest known reference to residents dating from the start of the 1700s, and a Ferriter castle once stood at Rinn an Chaisleáin. About 150 people lived there in the 1840s, the Congested Districts Board built five houses around 1909 and 1910, and the island was evacuated in 1953, when life there had become unsustainable (Wikipedia, Great Blasket Island).

The landscape

• The village ruins - roofless stone houses in terraces above the landing slip.
• Tra Bhan - the white strand under the village, where grey seals lie up in numbers.
• The ridge track - a grass path along the spine to the western end of the island.
• The other Blaskets - Inis Tuaisceart and the rest of the group out to the west.

When to go

Ferries run from roughly Easter to the end of September and cancel readily, since swell at the landing slip stops boats even on days that look calm from the pier. Book, then check again on the morning. June and July give the longest days, and the seals are on the strand right through the summer.

Before you go

The crossing is short but often rough, and landing means stepping onto a slip from a small boat, which some people find unnerving. There is no shop, no shelter beyond the ruins and one small seasonal cafe that may not be open. Weather turns quickly with nowhere to get out of it, and if it closes in the last boat can be cancelled with you on the island.

Nearby

Dunquin pier, Slea Head and the rest of the Dingle Peninsula road.

Key facts