Islands of Ireland: Did a pirate leave anything behind on West Cork's Rinneen Island?
Islands of Ireland: A mute swan nests on Rinneen Island, Dunmanus Bay, County Cork. Picture: Dan MacCarthy
The mute swan poses regally on its nest of reeds and seaweed at this tiny West Cork island, a solitary protector of this tiny island or islet. And not mute, of course, just not as boisterous as our other two species, the whooper and Bewick's swan.
The island is a mere 20m off Dunmanus Pier and looks across towards the Sheep’s Head Peninsula. It is a low-lying, unremarkable-looking spot, but therein lies the story.
Rinneen Island may once have had a ruler of a different kind than the incumbent Cygnus olor. It was owned in the 19th century by a William Hull a direct descendant of his notorious relative of the same name.
Hull was the registered owner of Rinneen Island according to the Griffith's Valuation which was carried out between 1848 and 1864 to establish liability on the poor rate. The name is infamous in this part of West Cork as it is associated with the notorious poacher-turned-gamekeeper, former custom’s official for the English Treasury, William Hull. He was also deputy vice admiral of Munster and a rent collector for the first earl of Cork, Richard Boyle.
Hull’s stronghold was at the townland of Leamcon outside Schull. He plied his trade in the mid-17th century with his base at the townland of Leamcon, outside Schull. He was originally a customs officer before realising a much more lucrative business opportunity presented itself in fencing contraband goods.
The mid-19th century William Hull is his descendant as the ownership of the lands passed along. The same Hull owned the tiny Illaunricmonia also on the southern side of the Mizen Peninsula which lends credence to the theory of ownership. Possibly clinching it, is a third and final possession at Leamcon.
At zero acres, three roods and 13 perches Rinneen Island is one of the smallest islands in this series so far, and merits the description of islet, to be accurate. The metric conversion is 668 square metres.
Its name comes from Rinnín, which translates as a small point or promontory. This suggests that Rinneen Island was once not an island but part of the mainland and may have been associated with Dunmanus Castle, a few hundred metres away.
This castle was the base of Donogh More O'Mahony and was built in 1430. It fell to English forces in 1602 following on from the Battle of Kinsale and the overthrow of the Gaelic chieftains. The O’Mahonys managed to regain the castle but lost it again in 1641 after some of the clan raided part of Hull’s business empire, one of his fish palaces.
Rinneen Island is dwarfed by some of its neighbouring islands. Strictly speaking, it is not part of the group as it lies within Dunmanus Harbour rather than the bay. The comparatively enormous Carbery Island is the only one with an occasional human presence, and the large Furze and Horse. Then there is the diminutive Cold Island, and finally a tiny pair of islands very near to Rinneen Island called Lusk and Scurvygrass to complete the six-island archipelago.
Curiously, the latter two have their mirror images near … Leamcon, around the Mizen Peninsula. Could the naming of one be associated with the pirate Hull and the connection to that dreaded illness to which pirates and other sailors fell victim: scurvy?
And the other may derive from the old Irish word for cave or underground chamber, ‘lusca’. This may be getting too Long John Silver in the detective work. The question still offers itself though: Did Hull, the pirate visit these scraps of islands? And why would a pirate visit an island?
There is only a 3km distance as the crow flies between the two pairs or about 20km by sea. The first pair lie in Dunmanus Bay and the second pair are at Ballyrisode Point on Long Island Bay, a stone’s throw from Leamcon Castle.
: , Connie Kelleher, Cork University Press
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