Islands of Ireland: Erratic behaviour in Galway

Huge swathes of granite crosses south Connemara, including the islands of the Gaeltacht area of Ceantar na nOileán.

Thu, 06 May, 2021 - 06:00

Dan McCarthy

Limestone has many friends. Not so granite. Where limestone is malleable, granite is obdurate. Where limestone accommodates, granite resists. Apart from sculptors and rock climbers, granite appears largely unloved.

Poets such as WH Auden, and nature writers such as Tim Robinson and Robert MacFarlane, swoon over its myriad properties. Poor old granite is best thought of as being suitable for graveyard headstones.

A huge swathe of it crosses south Connemara, including the islands of the Gaeltacht area of Ceantar na nOileán. It arcs northwards from Galway City, nearly touches Lough Corrib before descending to the sea again just beyond Roundstone.

Pockets exist elsewhere in Connemara but it is within that arc that most of its granite lies. At the southern extremity of Ceantar na nOileán sections of volcanic rock come up against the igneous stalwart. The Galway granite is around 400 million years old.

Among these islands lies the largely unnoticed Freaghillaun Beg, or Fraochoileán Beag to give it its original name. Its standout characteristic is its granite bedrock and associated erratics — boulders picked up somewhere else and dropped here out of context, as it were. The erratics can contain exotic formations and even gemstones.

Dan McCarthy: 'Kayakers love the weaving in and out of the narrow channels that divide the islands and which make for a fantastic paddle on a quiet day.'

On the nearby Lettermore Island, erratics containing exotic sapphires have been found. Others contain the multicoloured minerals emerald or beryl.

Freaghillaun Beg is one of about 15 islands in southern Kilkieran Bay in south Connemara. Many of them are inter-connected, strung like beads along a necklace of causeways.

Freaghillaun Beg’s nearest neighbour, Crappagh, is one part of the necklace. It is 26 acres, while its supposedly larger neighbour, Freaghillaun More, comes in at 22 acres — making this a geographic anomaly where the larger partner is, in fact, smaller. At just 15m elevation, however, its diminutive status is fairly well established. It has a nice beach and affords enough protection to entice the camping fraternity.

Kayakers love the weaving in and out of the narrow channels that divide the islands and which make for a fantastic paddle on a quiet day. At low tide, with its mountains of kelp, it is a different story. In a raging storm it is one of the most inhospitable places in the country.

Beyond these small islands is the Atlantic Ocean. The Aran Islands can be seen shimmering in the distance, and beyond them is Newfoundland — not visible.

However, it is granite that demands the attention here — specifically its erratic form. They are scattered around on Freaghillaun Beg, and on some of the neighbouring islands, like sugar cubes from a giant’s table. Here, one lies like a wardrobe discarded on the beach. There, one lies like an old sofa sunken into the sand.

The island’s interior (let’s not get carried away, it can be crossed in 15 minutes) has much more of these boulders. They were flung, tossed and deposited by retreating and advancing glaciers in the Pleistocene epoch, which ended about 12,000 years ago. The glaciers crushed, mangled and twisted almost everything in their path in this frangible landscape.

There are several other islands of this name in Ireland, mainly in Galway. In his magnificent compendium of Irish islands, David Walsh lists 12 related to the Irish for “heather”. This Freaghillaun met with David’s approval for its scoured granite boulders and grazing horses. The Irish Examiner can add a bovine presence from a recent visit, but very little else.

All the heather islands are small and uninhabited. The descriptive name alludes to the inhospitable landscape. There are others though to be found on lakes.

No one built a causeway to Freaghillaun Beg like they did to its neighbours. No one built a house or a pier. No one has memorialised it in literature and probably not in song. Yet it is a lovely island. It has recorded its own epic to granite and it is written all over its surface as if it were paper. A priceless document.