Islands of Ireland: Semi-ruined Carrigafoyle Castle surveys Carrig Island and beyond

This island is joined to the mainland by a causeway and there are monastic settlement remains here too as well as a Napoleonic era battery

Islands of Ireland: Carrig Island with Carrigafoyle Castle, County Kerry. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

The north Kerry coastline from Kerry Head heading east to the Shannon Estuary is bereft of islands save for the sizeable Carrig Island. However, some may dispute it is an island at all as it is joined to the mainland by a causeway. Of course, prior to the construction of that link it was clearly an island and had several human settlements which inform its character today. Only the purists would argue that Carrig’s county neighbour, Valentia Island, is not an island.

A little further east, is the town of Tarbert from where ferries come and go across the Shannon to Killimer in County Clare. Across the estuary from Carrig Island are the County Clare duo of Scattery and Hog.