Islands of Ireland: The smallest island yet in this series
Eargold Island is one of many islands in Galway's Kinvara Bay. Picture: Dan MacCarthy
Of the hundreds of thousands of entries on the indispensable placenames’ resource, logainm.ie, there is none for the County Galway island of Eargold. Every ‘rath’, ‘cill’, ‘baile’ and ‘lis’ is dutifully recorded, but this scrap of earth in Kinvara Bay goes undetected. However, as the resource says itself, it is a work in progress and light may yet be shed on this strange name. If any readers could enlighten this column it would be welcomed.
Nonetheless, an idea presents itself in the form of ’Eadar dha ghabhal’ which is ‘a place between two rivers’ and found in the near homonym Adrigole, County Cork, as well as Addragool and Addergoole. The only problem with this theory is that there are not two rivers on either side of the Eargold near Kinvara. Unless … there may have been streams that disappeared under the limestone — but this feels like chasing Alice down into her Wonderland.
At the remove of several hundred years, trying to play the etymology detective with some placenames can be at best a game of shadowplay or at worst a fruitless venture. A stab at its anglicisation would be ‘Airgead’, though why this minute island would be associated with wealth is guesswork: perhaps related to the gathering of seaweed which could be sold. Seaweed harvesting was about the only possible means of wealth generation on Eargold. Of course the ’gold’ part of the word also relates to wealth but that is mere coincidence and a spurious route of investigation.
A spectacular sky over the prominent 16th century tower house of Dunguaire Castle on the shores of Galway Bay... Wow! 🌅🏰🔥❤️
— Visit Galway (@visit_galway) June 21, 2023
📸 Peter Nagy
📍 Dunguaire Castle, Kinvara#Sunset #Wow #AmazingPlaces #DunguaireCastle #WildAtlanticWay #Kinvara #Galway #Ireland #VisitGalway pic.twitter.com/JB48Y3Ooid
Seaweed gathering along the shore in County Galway and elsewhere was known as ‘cnuasach trá’ and was often the only thing between people and outright destitution. Along with seaweed, shellfish, and other materials were collected. “The work and method used depended on the season, on the types of seaweed and shellfish gathered and the coastline of the area,” according to the UCD cultural heritage collection.
“Seasonal high tides, or rabhartaí, are quoted as appropriate times to find material from the shore, including rabharta na Féile Pádraig around St Patrick’s day and rabharta na nÉan in the month of May. It could be difficult, and sometimes risky work, as is seen in accounts of those who found themselves trapped by the tide while combing the shore,” states the collection.
The naming of Eargold may also relate to the adjacent tidal mill of Tawnagh across which is a causeway leading east to Doorus Point or west to the island of Aughinish, also reachable by causeway, which divides the sea from Bridge Lough and yet another island, Rinreagh.
Eargold is tucked into the northeast corner of the bay and has plenty of island neighbours, several of which are as small as itself: Avough Island, Cruckeen Island, Seal Island, Bush’s Island, Doorus Island, Lamb Island, Sullivan’s Island, and Calf’s Island. It is the smallest island to appear in this series at a sizeable nought acres, nought roods and 19 perches (in old money, or 100sq m).
The entire island complex has been deemed a special area of conservation and is popular with otters and seals, as one of the islands attests by virtue of its name. It is a place of utter peace apart from the sometime shrieking of the oystercatchers or the phut phut of a passing punt.
None of these islands was ever inhabited, they are much too small for that, but there are what appear to be the ruins of a lime kiln on one of the islands, Cruckeen, though curiously, this is unrecorded on archaeology.ie
The area has a spectacular megalithic wedge tomb just near to Seal Island but which is obscured by tree cover. The Doorus Demesne wedge tomb consists of two huge pillars and an even bigger capstone which is itself capped with layers of stone.
Further to the south of these islands in Kinvara Bay is a cluster of other islands, larger and closer to Kinvara itself, but they are for another day’s exploration on the kayak.
: Kayak from an old pier 2km east of Tawnagh Mill next to Seal Island.
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