Inis Oirr

Inis Oirr is the smallest and most easterly of the Aran islands, about three kilometres across, with a population of roughly two hundred and sixty and a village clustered around the harbour and its sandy beach. Above the village a fourteenth-century O'Brien tower house stands inside the walls of a much older ring fort, the two structures a thousand years apart on the same knoll. On the eastern shore lies the Plassey, a cargo ship driven ashore in a storm in 1960 - the whole crew was saved by the island's breeches buoy - and left to rust on the rocks, now heavily corroded and instantly recognisable to anyone who watched the opening titles of Father Ted. There is also a church half-buried in sand, a lighthouse at the southern tip, and the same limestone and stone wall landscape as the other two islands. Bicycles are the usual way to get around.

What you actually see

• The Plassey wreck - a 1960 cargo ship rusting on the eastern shore.
• O'Brien's Castle - a fourteenth-century tower inside a far older ring fort.
• The buried church - Teampall Chaomhain, half under the sand.
• The stone walls - the same limestone field grid as the other islands.

When to go

May to September, when ferries are frequent and services open. The Doolin crossing is short but exposed and cancels in swell. Day trips are common; the island empties in the evening.

Honest expectations

The wreck is heavily corroded, sharp-edged and unsafe to climb on. Ferries cancel in weather - the Doolin route more often than Rossaveal. Facilities are seasonal and limited.

Nearby

Inis Meain and Inis Mor are north-west; Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher face it across the sound.