Valentia Island

Valentia lies off the Iveragh Peninsula and is reached by a bridge at Portmagee or, in summer, a short ferry from Reenard Point. It is small, green and hillier than it looks. On the northern side, a road climbs Geokaun Mountain to a viewpoint over the Fogher Cliffs and out toward the Skelligs. Near the old slate quarry, a set of fossil footprints in rock at the shore records a four-legged animal crossing mud around 385 million years ago, among the earliest such traces known anywhere. The island was also the European end of the first working transatlantic telegraph cable in the 1860s, which briefly made it a hub of messages between continents.

History

The Irish name, Dairbhre, means "oak isle". Valentia was the eastern end of the first commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable; the first attempt, in 1857, to land a cable from Ballycarbery Strand on the mainland just east of the island ended in disappointment (Wikipedia, Valentia Island).

The landscape

• The tetrapod trackway - fossil footprints of an early four-legged animal at the shore.
• Geokaun and the Fogher Cliffs - a road-accessed summit and clifftop viewpoint.
• The slate quarry - the old workings cut into the hillside above Knightstown.
• The cable station - where the first working transatlantic telegraph came ashore.

When to go

April to September, when the ferry runs, the Skellig boats operate out of Portmagee and the island's small businesses are open. Clear days matter for the Geokaun viewpoint, since cloud reduces it to a car park on a hill. Tides make little difference to the trackway, but wet rock makes the footprints much harder to read.

Before you go

The trackway is a set of shallow depressions in wet rock and takes some looking at before it means anything; plenty of visitors walk straight past it. Geokaun charges for road access to the top. Island roads are narrow with grass down the middle, the ferry is short and weather dependent, and there is very little to do in the evening.

Nearby

Portmagee sits across the bridge; Skellig boats leave from there in season.

Key facts