Inis Meain

Inis Meain is the middle of the three Aran islands and takes a small fraction of the visitors that Inis Mor does, which is why people who want the Aran of the imagination tend to go here. Around a hundred and sixty people live on it and Irish is the everyday language. J M Synge spent summers here between 1898 and 1902 and the plays came out of what he heard; the cottage he stayed in and a stone seat above the cliffs, Synge's Chair, are both on the island. Dun Chonchuir, a large oval stone fort on the high ground, is one of the better preserved of its kind in Ireland and there is nobody at the gate. The land is a grid of tiny fields inside dry stone walls on bare limestone, built up over centuries with sand and seaweed. There is one shop, one pub, a knitwear company and very limited accommodation.

What you actually see

• Dun Chonchuir - a large oval stone fort on the island's high ground.
• The stone wall grid - tiny fields built on bare limestone over centuries.
• Synge's Chair - the cliff-edge seat above the western shore.
• The living language - Irish spoken as the everyday tongue.

When to go

May to September; ferries and flights are reduced out of season and cancel in swell. Accommodation is very limited - book before travelling, not on arrival.

Honest expectations

One shop and one pub; almost no services and no car hire. Ferries cancel in weather. Cliffs on the southern side are high and completely unfenced. It is quiet in a way that some visitors find dull.

Nearby

Inis Mor is north-west, Inis Oirr south-east; the Cliffs of Moher face the islands.