The Islands of Ireland: Sanctuary at Harper’s Island

To the charge that Harper’s Island in Cork Harbour, with its three points of contact to the ‘mainland’, is not an island, the rebuttal affirming its island status: The area is defined by its natural history and not its current structures, writes Dan MacCarthy.

The harbour waters fully encircle the island but there is no access from where the N25 sweeps from Cork to Waterford. A train bridge from Cork to Cobh skirts its western flank and a bridge over the rail-line to Midleton allows access from the mainland.