Drishane Island is a magnet for summer swimmers — but just get in and get out for the Christmas swim
Islands of Ireland: Drishane Island regularly has a blue and white flag planted on it to celebrate Castlehaven GAA team
This is another tiny island for this series, and again more properly an islet. However, the Ordnance Survey is quite happy to give Drishane Island its island status we'll go along with that.
It is situated about 6km as the crow flies south of the West Cork town of Skibbereen and lies a few kilometres east of the famous Lough Ine and a few west of the village of Castletownshend.
As you might expect, the island is unpopulated, not even grazed, and does not even have a monument to speak of, and definitely not a pier.
For as long as people have been swimming at Tragumna, or Trag to the locals, Drishane Island was an irresistible magnet to reach. However, dangerous currents and eddies on the east side dissuaded the weak swimmer. Once reached, the short distance from the beach it is a relatively easy feat to clamber to the top and stake your claim to be king of the castle.
Trag beach itself is a lovely sheltered place with Blue Flag status and is very busy with swimmers in the summer.
However, reaching the island is not the goal of the hundreds of swimmers who take part in the annual Christmas swim run by the Olympic-winning Skibbereen Rowing Club. Drishane Island forms the backdrop as the swimmers rush into the very cold waters.
The temperature usually hovers around 10°C but has been known to go colder still. The swim can attract in the vicinity of 100 swimmers who will brave the water in any weather.
“Over 100 people show up for the Christmas swim with similar numbers for the summer swim”, says Sean Murray from Skibbereen who has been taking part in the swim for decades. “There’s a mixture of lay swimmers and those with more experience,” he says.
A much tougher endurance (in distance if not in temperature) takes place in the summer when legions of swimmers race around the island that measures just 75sq m. This charity event attracts people with a range of abilities and has three distances to test the swimmers’ mettle: A short run out and back of 500m; a 1km circumnavigation and a 2km distance with the same intention.
Triathletes take part in this race too, says Sean, timing themselves for optimum performance. In fact, they can be seen occasionally training at the island at other times.
Long-distance swimming is considered anything over 1,500m though Sean, who trains around the corner from Trag at Lough Ine, has swum considerably farther than that. As to the benefits of long-distance swimming he says: “I’ve been swimming long distance for about 15 years and I keep asking myself why didn’t I take it up earlier.”
The event last summer was on behalf of two charities with each benefitting to the tune of €3,000: The West Cork Rapid Response service and the Community Air Ambulance. Other years have seen donations for the special classes at St Josephs girls' National School and St Patrick’s Boys' National School in Skibbereen.
The island runs in a northeast-to-southwest orientation in harmony with the bay in which it lies. It is grass-covered and has a distinctive cleft on its western side. Towards the mouth of the bay there is a second beach at Tralispean but which does not have the same popularity as Trag.
Another distinctive feature of Drishane Island is that a blue and white flag is frequently planted high on the island (and that is no mean feat). The colours belong to the Castlehaven GAA team and mark the occasion of the team’s appearance in a County Senior Football final. And as there is no shortage of such appearances the flag can be seen there fluttering on many a summer’s day.
There is also a townland called Drishane at Castletownshend, and the island lies within the civil parish of Castlehaven, so it is only appropriate that the flag is sometimes planted on the island. However, Trag has Drishanmore and it is this rather than the Castletownshend one to which the island refers.
: Swim or kayak from Tragumna beach 9km south of Skibbereen.
This year’s swim run by Skibbereen Rowing Club takes place on Sunday — Christmas Day — at noon.
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