Islands of Ireland: How Miss Plummer’s Island in Kerry got its name

Miss Plummer’s Island is garlanded with a kaleidoscope of wildflowers and dominated by a fine twisting conifer

Miss Plummer’s Island attracted many visitors over the years, some of whom wrote accounts of their impressions. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

Sounding like a piece from a game of Cluedo or a destination in an Agatha Christie adventure, this is in fact a very real island near Killarney, Co Kerry. It is situated on that amazing channel of water known as the Long Range which meanders for about 2km between the Upper Lake and Lake Muckross, which is itself an interlude before the largest of the trio, Lough Leane. The channel has numerous inlets and bays that tempt the eye and the imagination towards discovery.

Miss Plummer’s Island is a minute island, heavily overgrown, or put another way, garlanded with a kaleidoscope of wildflowers and dominated by a fine twisting conifer.