Islands of Ireland: The Limerick island with a unique status and habitat

Nobody has ever lived on Sturamus Island, which might get its name from the Irish for dust or mud

Islands of Ireland: Sturamus Island, Limerick. Included here: the Limerick map from RL Praeger’s landmark work, Irish Topographical Botany published in 1901. opw.ie for outdoors

This island with the Latin-sounding name lies just off the port of Foynes in County Limerick and is enormously dwarfed by its relatively gigantic neighbour.

Foynes Island was once home to the Irish sailor, adventurer and nationalist Conor O’Brien who sailed around the world in his yacht the Saoirse almost 100 years ago.

No human has ever lived on Sturamus and the island is devoid of any signs of human settlement. In fact, given its proportions, no mammal could live on it. It has been associated with a common tern breeding colony though whether the colony is still resident or not was not easily apparent on a recent visit in the dusk. ‘Stúr’ in Irish is ‘dust’, so perhaps ‘the place of dust’ or perhaps ‘mud’ might be the explanation for its name. And for once the brilliant logainm.ie is stumped as to a meaning.

The tidal range for Sturamus Island is at least 5 metres or 18 feet which is a massive difference between low and high tides. In between lies a vast squelching mud bank and if you are unlucky enough to mis-time your kayak here you will be subjected to a tirade of condemnation, mostly self-inflicted, for being stupid enough to be caught out by the wiles of the Shannon Estuary. There is only a window of about an hour either side of high tide to approach Sturamus island from Foynes Port before the appearance of a giant parabolic shadow of mud stretching east in the direction of Limerick City from Foynes Island.

Sturamus is only 500m from the invisible mid-estuary border with County Clare and a less muddy approach can be made from the estuarine shores of that county. Its 0.2 of a hectare is comprised mainly of coarse sand deposited by the river with outcrops of limestone occurring here and there. In addition to its terns it is a favourite haunt of cormorants, gulls, and plover.

Sturamus Island has a threefold protection: being included in the remit of the Lower River Shannon Special Area of Conservation, the Shannon Estuary Special Protection Area, and the Natural Heritage Area designation.

THE STUFF OF LEGEND

For all its diminutive size Sturamus Island has had a famous visitor. The County Down botanist and writer Robert Lloyd Praeger, whose The Way That I Went, is probably the greatest book ever written on Ireland’s geography, disembarked from a small punt in the early years of the last century. He also visited Trummera Big on the other side of the former island of Aughinish. Also, a minute island. 

Praeger’s field trips were the stuff of legend and he would often undertake huge walks in the countryside whether mapping geological formations or studying moths. An evocative description of the man is given in the report mentioned below. On swimming back from a small island in the Quoile Estuary in Northern Ireland he was “literally crowned with rare grass, a bundle of specimens being lashed to the top of his head”.

Death of Robert Lloyd Praeger announced in Irish Examiner in Thursday, May 7, 1953 edition for Outdoors

A BELLWETHER

In what has become a laboratory for estuarine botanical research on Sturamus, the brilliant botanist discovered several plant species among the limestone pebbles and assorted flotsam and jetsam of the island. One discovery was of the non-native common cordgrass.

Praeger’s studies were expanded upon by several other botanical trips in the last few decades. Amazingly, botanists found 19 vascular species of plants growing by the very small saltmarsh. These plants have specialised tissues to transport nutrients and water. The Sturamus study revealed the spear-leaved orache; sea plantain; sea aster; and again after Prager, common cordgrass, among others.

Irish Topographical Botany Praeger's Landmark Work https://www.botanicgardens.ie/science-and-learning/praegers-irish-topographical-botany/ for outdoors

This scrap of an island, and others in the estuary such as Trummera Big, are barely hanging on to their existence. You would imagine that a few major storms could cause their utter disintegration and their unique status and habitat would be gone forever. Sturamus is a bellwether for rising sea levels and one of which we would do well to take note.

How to get there: No ferry. Kayak from Foynes, County Limerick.

Other: The way, That I Went, Robert Lloyd Praeger, Collins Press; Flora of Sturamus Island, Co Limerick , S.C.P. Reynolds, Irish Naturalists Journal, Vol 28, No 5, 2006; NPWS.ie