Islands of Ireland: Illauneeragh, County Kerry is a mix of pristine and polluted

Skeletons of starfish, mussel and crabs shells decorate the beach which is also scattered with bits of coloured rope and buoys

Islands of Ireland: Illauneeragh. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

Ardgroom Harbour is one of two huge harbours side by side on the northern side of the Beara Peninsula. The two are quite different in character: Where Kilmakilloge Harbour is densely wooded with stately Scots pine, Ardgroom Harbour has a wilder feel to it, and though wooded in places, it has plenty of barren rock to mark it as different. One of its main identifying features are the extensive mussel beds which occupy a large part of the central harbour.

It has nine islands though, in truth, seven is surely more accurate. The Osi map describes Yellow Island and Black Island as islands but they are mere navigational aids with painted concrete beacons to assist seafarers.

The islands are divided unequally between Cork and Kerry with all but two of them in the latter county. The bulk lie in the County Kerry parish of Tuosist, the county border having snaked its way over the mountains to touch the sea invisibly about a third of the way along the harbour from the Kerry side.

The long-distance hiking trail, the Beara Way, passes above the harbour across the rugged, Tooth Mountain and the lower Keecragh Mountain through an area which is rich in Bronze Age monuments.

From this vantage point, Bird Island is by far the most wooded, nearly dominated now by the invasive rhododendron. Further out, the small islands of the harbour are rocky outcrops, in keeping with the adjacent shore. There are no access roads or piers anywhere on the eastern or southern side of the harbour giving them a more remote feel. Instead, access is from Pallas Pier on the western side of the harbour. This is a busy fishing pier with lots of activity and is protected by the open sea by a spit linking Cus Island with the mainland.

Curravaniheen is the furthest island of this group from shore but at high tide is barely a reef. There are further reefs all around that part of the Kenmare River, though unnamed. Curravaniheen has enough of a presence though to have sunk the Sea Flower trawler in December 1968 with the loss of five lives.

Illauneeragh, near Ardgroom, Co Cork, but actually in Co Kerry. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

On a recent excursion to the island of Illauneeragh, having first visited the outlier Curravaniheen the bay looked glorious. Paddling in a southeast direction the waves are driven like a herd of wildebeest and just like the capricious nature of that noble beast, can change direction in a moment. For now, they hold their direction and ease the kayak past the Skellig Rock reef and onto the 45-degree shore of Illauneeragh. The Skellig, like its much more famous namesake, is a rough-looking crag, though unlike it, never had a monastery.

Between Illauneeragh and the shore is another small island and this one looks like it once had human habitation. Huge rock slabs look like they could be the capstones of dolmens but on closer inspection later on prove to be just rock formations lying at an angle.

Illauneeragh is a mix of pristine and polluted, though can’t help but wonder at the origin of some of the artefacts: A sole Scholl sandal stranded above high tide mark; a telegraph pole lies wedged between rock; a fish bone so bleached it looks like a kitchen utensil; a fragment of a seagull — wing and beak; bits of coloured rope and buoys.

There are entangled histories and fabled memories layered over time. It is so rich in things broken and things, lost or washed up, that poetry workshops could be given there. Skeletons of starfish, mussel and crabs shells decorate the beach. The latter is a scene straight from ‘Ghost Crabs’ by Ted Hughes.

“At nightfall/ As the sea darkens/ A depth darkness thickens/ mustering from the gulfs and the submarine badlands/ To the sea’s edge/ …Giant crabs under flat skulls/ staring inland”.

And though there is no entry for Illauneeragh on loganim.ie, an island of the same name in Connemara translates to Irish as An tOileán Iarthach Thiar or the Western Island. This is a curiosity in itself as the island is on the east of the harbour.

Illauneeragh is a special place. Distinct and remote, visceral.

How to get there: No ferry. Kayak from Pallas Pier, Ardgroom