West Cork: Long Island Walk

A long way away from the rest of the world.

AS we set off left from the pier, our trail head, gulls hang low over the road, riding an up-draught and crying out as if outraged by our arrival. There is no other living thing to be seen. The island population reached three hundred people in the nineteenth century; now, it numbers ten. Long Islanders were a hardy people; the men were fishermen and farmers. Their wives were mighty oars women, rowing fifteen miles to Skibbereen to the mill. In December 1795, a brig en route from Cadiz to Dublin with a cargo of Christmas oranges foundered, and was attacked by the industrious citizens with axes so that “not an atom was left afloat”. Oranges and timber from Long Island were sold all over West Cork.

Soon, the views are magnificent; Clear Island to the south, Sherkin, seen over the low-lying Calf Islands, to the south east, then Baltimore town, with the Napoleonic-era Signal Tower on the hills above. In the sea far to the west, the Fastnet Rock and its lighthouse stand lonely and shining in the sun.