Islands of Ireland: The rough and the smooth

Upwards of 20 islands are scattered about here like children’s toys in this lake

Rough Island, Lough Currane, Co Kerry. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know. 

Beautiful words themselves from John Keats, if a bit vapid. Of course, there have been many other ways to describe beauty, such as it being in the eye of the beholder. It is hard to fathom that here could be a place as beautiful anywhere as Lough Currane, Co Kerry.

On a recent November evening under a sky which ranged from bright orange to vermilion, to inky black, all of which was reflected on the lough’s surface, it was time to take a look at the curious Rough Island at the edge of this magical lake at the end of the Iveragh Peninsula.

Dan MacCarthy: 'Rough Island does not invite exploration. It is wooded here and there with holly, there is a preponderance of heather and furze bushes whose butter-yellow flowers vainly keep the darkness at bay.'

Upwards of 20 islands are scattered about here like children’s toys. The majority lie in the eastern end near where the road ends and mystery begins under Coomcallee Mountain and where standing stones have stood for thousands of years, obelisks of a vanished civilisation. The Dunkerron Mountains encircle the lake creating a natural barrier to the interior. The lough’s islands include the curiously named Quarter Gannet Island, the mysterious Reenaskinna Islands, and the prosaic Grass Island.

Finding a launching place for the kayak is relatively easy among some reeds on the southern shore. The paddle cuts into the membrane of the water as if slicing cheese. And so begins a journey to heaven. A low mist lingers on the water like a shredded shroud.

Forget Kerry or Ireland, this is planet Earth and it has served up a feast for the senses that leaves them reeling and astonished. Rough Island is just 500m distant and the journey through this chamber is soundless but for the chittering of birds.

With the fading light the island resists any kind of discovery. It is the getting there that counts for this one, rather than the knowing of it. Rounding its tip the dying light is amplified from being out of the island’s shade. Sheep now become visible on the hilltops against the incipient night, their silhouetted forms resembling something out of myth.

At three acres — three roods and nine perches in old money — it is the largest island on the lough. It marginally exceeds Church Island with its sixth-century monastery founded by St Finan. Also in old money, it is Loch Luíoch.

Rough Island does not invite exploration. It is wooded here and there with holly, there is a preponderance of heather and furze bushes whose butter-yellow flowers vainly keep the darkness at bay. A landing on a hilly limestone outcrop affords little chance of advancement. Mysterious holes lie under the knots of foliage. There is no pier, no house, not even a sign that humans ever set foot here — at least in the dying of the light. This begs the question of experiencing these places — why should sunlight claim all the glory, the night is at least as interesting.

Rough Island’s name in Irish isn’t given on the Ordnance Survey maps but might have bean recorded as tOileán Garbh as in Gleanngarbh for Glengarriff: Rough Glen. Oh, and there is an offspring: Rough Island Little, it is everything in minuscule what its near namesake is in majuscule.

Lough Currane is renowned for trout fishing and the Rough Island vicinity is regarded as one of the best places to fish for them. However, anglers have complained of dwindling stocks in recent years due to sea lice from farmed salmon.

Something of the ineffable nature of this place is hinted at in a poem by Waterville’s Paddy Bushe. Though Sky Woman doesn’t directly refer to the lough its images certainly carry much of the majesty of the place.

“The villagers have mapped the paths that mark The routes for trade. Now only she discerns The skyward paths that comb the clouds for stars.

She knows by heart the heavy laws they’ve carved Deep into stone slabs. But she has also learned The law that came before the laws that are.”

• How to get there: Kayak from several spots along the lake shore. Kayaks must be cleansed thoroughly before embarking on the lake due to the risk of spreading invasive species. No ferry.
• Other: Poems With Amergin, Paddy Bushe, Beaver Row Press