The Islands of Ireland: A light touch in Achill Island

There are many sublime words to capture the nuances of light, and in Achill, Co Mayo, all of them are appropriate depending on the time of day or season.

On a recent visit to a house loaned by a German friend snug in the western village of Dooagh, the light displayed much of its rich vocabulary: Lambent moonlight bathed the mountainside; lustrous starlight flashed in heaven’s vault; light glistened on the sea; light occluded when the brooding clouds rolled in and cut off the vistas; radiant light when the curtain of clouds was drawn back to reveal the dark, inscrutable cliffs; a burnished light of the evening when the white gables of the houses caught the glow of the sinking sun.