Inis Oirr

Inis Oirr is the smallest and most easterly of the Aran islands, about three kilometres across, with a population of roughly three hundred and forty 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.

History

A burial site found in 1885, Cnoc Raithní, dates from 1500 BC and is the earliest evidence of people on the island. Saint Caomhán, its patron, was by some traditions the elder brother of Kevin of Glendalough, and the ruins of the 10th-century Teampall Chaomháin, in the cemetery, have to be dug out every year, as its floor lies well below the level of the sand (Wikipedia, Inisheer).

The landscape

• 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.

Things to know

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.

Key facts