Islands of Ireland: One-legged, 80-year-old clan leader of Mayo isle sent to gallows in 1500s
Castlehag Island, Lough Carra, Co Mayo with the ruins of a Bourke castle in the centre. Picture: Dan MacCarthy
A suspicion that human activity had preceded the arrival of this columnist began to grow on approach to this innocuous-looking island on Lough Carra, County Mayo.
The usual presence of native tree specimens was augmented by a huge mound of lustrous ivy which has a predilection for limestone, the rock from which many of our castles are built.
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![<p> The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that “an ecosystem is collapsed when it is virtually certain that its defining biotic [living] or abiotic [non-living] features are lost from all occurrences, and the characteristic native biota are no longer sustained”.</p>](/cms_media/module_img/9930/4965053_12_augmentedSearch_iStock-1405109268.jpg "<p> The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that “an ecosystem is collapsed when it is virtually certain that its defining biotic [living] or abiotic [non-living] features are lost from all occurrences, and the characteristic native biota are no longer sustained”.</p>")
