Islands of Ireland: Galway's Friar Island — a magnet for kayakers, divers... and sheep

The island is grazed by sheep hence the almost complete absence of trees and flowers there. A steep slope allows the animals to be brought on and off and the pen at the top of the slope is the only visible manmade structure on the private island.

Islands of Ireland. Friar Island (to the left in this image). Picture: Dan MacCarthy 

Friar Island is one of those places that is more than the sum of its parts. Each of its four sections, sort of like a distorted four-leafed clover, is unremarkable but together they form a very attractive place. Perhaps it has to do with location. At a few kilometres off the west coast of County Galway the island provides a shelter from rough seas for any seafarer in need of succour. There is a delightful channel between the western sections which tower above the kayaker, whose vessel is the only type of boat that can pass through there.

Beyond Friar Island are Cruach and the former ecclesiastic centre of High island... and after that it’s Newfoundland. And there are no friars here now but possibly some lived there in centuries past, perhaps an anchorite’s cell related to High Island.