Islands of Ireland: Flea Island a short hop away
explores Flea Island near Castletownshend, Co Cork
There is a huge variety of names to Ireland’s hundreds and hundreds of islands. They are named after geographical features mainly, but also people, and of course animals. We have many horse islands, cow islands, rabbit islands; several bull, calf, cow, and hog islands. There are a couple of pig, lamb, dog, deer, and duck islands. There are even bird, swan, eagle, puffin, jackdaw, crab, turbot, colt, fox, goat, cat, and ox islands but just one Flea island. Why Flea Island, in Co Cork, is so named is probably to do with its minuteness but also its shape.
The other islands don’t resemble the animals after which they are name, but Flea Island bucks the trend. An aerial view reveals two ‘wings’ joined in the middle by a short rocky isthmus — the perfect rendition of a flea, with two arced flanks. Its northern ‘wing’ of marram grass and sea thrift comprises .734 of an acre. Its southern ‘wing’ can barely muster half an acre, .505 to be exact. Added together, they comprise just over an an acre.
And yet people visit there, as a distinctive path winds its way to the far side of the northern half from the landing point. A second meandering path can be seen on the southern half. There are no sheep and no goats so the conclusion is the tracks have to be manmade.
Flea Island lies at the mouth of Castlehaven Harbour in West Cork. It is leeward of the much bigger Horse Island and west of the craggy Skiddy Island. From the stony beach at Tracarta, where multicoloured kayaks are lined up for adventure in the nooks and crannies of the harbour, it is possible to clamber over the shoreline at low tide to the island.
With Flea Sound on your right and the imposing Horse Island with its folly tower erected by the Somervilles further out, it is a short, though rugged walk. If the tide is in it is necessary to climb steep rocks after a brief boat (kayak) trip.
Flea island and Horse Island formed part of the Somerville estate which is centred on Drishane House in Castletownshend. The family settled there in the 1800s and established reputations in successive generations in the Anglican church, in shipping, and also literary circles through Edith Somerville, who was one half of the Somerville and Ross writing team which wrote The Irish RM among several other works.
The tiny size of Flea Island raises the question as to what actually constitutes an island. Very small groups of rocks and reefs tend to be named thus: Foze Rock, Lemon Rock etc. Certainly, if an island has a name then that in itself seems to be sufficient for it to be classed as an island. For sure, this island is uninhabitable, so the capacity for an island to be inhabited is not a determining factor.
Under the science of fractals all surfaces can be deemed to have a limitless length. This applies to coastlines, rivers, lakes, mountains, clouds, trees, and even hurricanes. So a line delineating the parameters of Flea Island can be said to have a limitless length where a pattern is repeated and repeated down to a micro level. In this form of abstraction it can be said to have no true length.
The British mathematician Augustus De Morgan neatly described the concept in his doggerel, a variation on a Jonathan Swift poem. Beautifully written on the subject at hand.
There is nothing especially attractive about Flea Island: No exotic rock formations recommend it; there is no beautiful wood where birdsong can be heard; there are no winding boreens to stroll and forget your worries, no wildflowers, no pleasant harbour, no one to talk to, no old ruins with creeping ivy. However, Flea Island is itself and as such is unique.
From Skibbereen, West Cork, take the R596 to Castletownshend and follow the road southwest to Tracarta beach.
drishane.com
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