Inishkea Islands are among the most interesting places visited so far on the West coast of Ireland. They are uninhabited nowadays but have a fascinating history and a lot of vestiges from the past.
François exploring Inishkea South Island abandoned village
Let's have a tour...
There is a small pier on the Island, but not very practical for a boat of the size of Cybèle 17 given the ferries bringing visitors in these summer days. We anchor therefore along the white sand beach just north of the harbour on the South Island. One has to look for sand patches in the water to drop the anchor given the seaweed fields in the area where the anchor is not likely to hold as we experienced.
Cybèle 17 on Inishkea South
Inishkea has a long history and was prosperous in the past through production of dye in the middle ages, piracy, sheep raising, fishing, selling kelp and whale hunting. At the peak of its activity, 350 people were living on Inishkea. This ended in 1927 when a storm hit by surprise the island while fishermen from the island were out at night fishing. Ten of them died in the storm, and couple of years after the island was abandoned by its inhabitant.
The school on Inishkea South that opened in 1886
The mark on top of the Inishkea South Island
The islanders relied on fishing and growing potatoes for subsistance. On the picture below we can see the traces of potato culture in the fields delimited by dry stone walls. The technic of lazy beds was used resulting in parallel banks of ridges and furrows still visible nowadays. Interestingly, Inishkea was not affected by the potato blight which resulted in "the Great Famine" in the XIX century.
View of Inishkea towards south
A stone road going through the island, probably related to potato cultivation
The seal cove on Inishkea South
The journey so far, 274.1 nautical miles on the loch...
More about Inishkea on "Mayo.me"
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