Islands of Ireland: Beeve’s Rock linked to 'wicked witch' who 'haunted the rocks'

Beeve's Rock with lighthouse in the Shannon Estuary, Co Clare. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

If one of the criteria for being an island is habitability then our island lighthouses certainly merit inclusion in this series. Skellig Michael and Inishtrahull in Co Donegal are both huge islands with lighthouses where lighthouse keepers lived for many decades and which would be included here with or without large buildings. Others are much smaller but nonetheless are islands, though predominantly manmade.

One such is Beeve’s Rock in the Shannon Estuary, which, though built on a rocky outcrop in the mudflats of the river, is an island by most definitions. No acreage is relevant here and no description of lovely walks to take around the island will be given, though that can be managed in about 30 seconds.

While it is closer to Co Limerick it is actually situated in Co Clare a matter of metres from the Treaty County.

Beeve’s Rock is as much an island as the crannógs of the Iron Age and any sailor adrift there might be damn glad of its solidity. There are several other rocky outcrops in the river here where the lighthouse might have been built: Cork Rock, Wide Rock and Herring Rock. Beeves is the plural of ‘beef’ but a connection to cattle seems spurious for this manmade island. Its name in Irish is Carraig na Rón or Rock of the Seals indicating its former appeal to that pinniped species. The presence of the seals is a likely explanation for the following myth as recorded by Dúchas and offered as an explanation for the name of the island. The name of the anti-hero may have been corrupted to Beeve.

“There was a wicked witch whose name was Bíodh, and she used always haunt the rocks with her crying and calling to be saved. When the people went out in their boats to her their boats always hit against the rocks and were smashed and the people were drowned.

“Then she shrieked with laughter and whenever she was hunted from there by the magic druids she haunted the rocks by Ringmoylan at a place called Carrig na Draí which means ‘The Rock of the Witch’.

Even now on wild nights her screaming is heard.

“We call it the tide but the old people called it the Tonna Casáin which means 'the path of the waves'.”

Among the lighthousekeepers on Beeve’s Rock were Edward McKenna and his assistant Murtagh Byrne who were aged 44 and 29 according to the 1901 census. Following this pair came one James McGinley whose grandson Enda Kenny went on to become Taoiseach in 2011 and who visited the place of his grandfather’s work around that time. Another person stationed on the rock was the noted Co Donegal fiddler John James Boyle.

While it was a detached experience working on the lighthouse it was far from lonely as a constant stream of traffic up and down the river would have resulted in plenty of human contact.

The lighthouse on Beeves Rock was built over an eight-year period from 1847 to 1855 when the predecessor of the Commissioner of Irish Lights, the Ballast Board, was persuaded of its importance. A number of boating accidents had resulted in several deaths. In 1832 a ship called the Cicero was reported as ‘lying on her beam ends’ to the south of Beeves Rock. It was condemned and a break-up was arranged.

A beacon that had stood on the rock on which the lighthouse was built was assessed as insufficient for modern navigation. The architect was the famous George Halpin who had a number of other lighthouses to his portfolio including the Fastnet Tarbert, and Valentia Island. Halpin unfortunately did not live to see it functioning.

However, the construction of the lighthouse did not presage an end to fatalities but almost definitely a reduction. And in 1884 a large sailing vessel foundered near the lighthouse and four sailors drowned.

In 1933 with the advent of modern technology Beeves Rock was converted to unwatched status. Beeve’s Rock lighthouse is a fine building with an elegant tower with a white cupola rising through the roof of the house. A lower wall and walkway surround the house to keep the waters at bay.

• How to get there: No ferry. Kayak from a pier at Poulaweala Creek just west of Askeaton, Co Limerick.
• Other: dúchas.ie