Love Tory: the ultimate Gaeltacht escape

"As one of the country’s most vibrant outposts of both culture and nature, the island had always been on my staycation wish-list"

It’s perhaps one of Ireland’s rarest and most iconic sounds of the bygone countryside life. Cycling along the deserted boreens of Tory Island, a sudden, rasping 'kreek, kreek' sounds across the evening summer air, drawing my bike to an abrupt jam. Could I be about to catch a vocal display from Ireland’s most elusive bird, the legendary corncrake? I may have been flung 45 minutes from the Donegal mainland, but I still had enough gusto in my mobile signal to harness a quick Youtube video of the bird. 

And, sure enough, comparing the footage with the live version across the hay meadows, it was a match. I’d travelled all the way to Ireland’s most remote inhabited island, with a distant hope of hearing the corncrake, and a just few minutes into the trip, my dream was right on song.