Islands of Ireland: The stories of Glanmore Lake

This lake near the Cork and Kerry border contains at least four small islands.

Illaunatee on Glanmore Lake, Co Kerry. Once home to a poitín maker who was hanged. It was also the hideaway for the IRB leader James Stephens in the 1860s on the run from English soldiers. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

Of all the improbable dwellings on Irish islands the one on Illaunatee, Co Kerry, is the most surprising. 

Firstly, from the vantage of the lakeside, the island is so small that it appears impossible to possess a dwelling, let alone what was once a substantial house. Secondly, that anyone would have bothered in the first place to construct a house in an area that did not already have a high population density.