Remote islands with rustic, artistic spirit
According to the Irish Islands Federation there are 33 inhabited islands with populations ranging from one to 800. I chose a handful belonging to the counties of Cork and Kerry, day- tripping to quiet places where folks spend their days at a slower pace.
Remote and rugged, they are home to fishermen, farmers, artists and urban refugees who live alongside the history of prehistoric settlers, Vikings, past battles and plenty of sheep and cows.
The old port of Baltimore, with its jelly-bean- colored-row-houses, is the jumpingoff point to islands brimming with watchtowers and battle- bashed castles, some with cannonballs still embedded in their walls.
On a sunny morning aboard the 40- minute ferry to Cape Clear Island, there were only leaping dolphins in waters that have witnessed centuries of piracy.
Once ashore, I laced my boots and walked the head land trails with sea views and lighthouses, following old stone walls draped in runaway roses. I finished with a ploughman’s lunch in cheery Ciaran Danny Mike Sean Eireamhain O’Driscoll’s pub— Ireland’s southernmost — listening to locals speaking Gaeilge, the Irish language. For the returns ail, I bought a dish of Bailey’s- flavored goat’s milk ice cream from a blind local farmer.
Five minutes by ferry from the mainland, Heir Island is another rural speck that took less than an hour to explore. Gourmet cuisine is hardly what you’d expect on an island 1 1⁄ miles long and
2 with a population of 25 — and no pub or post office. But a few “blow- ins” — outsiders — are serving up just that.
Fine dining has been taking place at Island Cottage restaurant for 25 years, with a view across to Jeremy Irons’ Kilcoe Castle. Chef John Desmond — who has Michelin three- star experience and taught cooking in Paris — serves locally sourced meals in a traditional Irish stone cottage that seats 22, with a kitchen barely bigger than a boat’s galley. In-the-off-season he offers cooking classes for a maximumof two students.
Before leaving the island I dropped in to chat with local painter Percy Hall in his stable/ studio. He looked at his watch. “You’ve time for wine,” he announced, andwe sipped a glass inside his centuries- old stone waterfront cottage until my boat sailed meback to reality.
From Baltimore I wound my way seaside to Castletownbere for a pontoon boat float to Bere Island. With a rental bike from Brendan Murphy’s 1908 general store, I tackled hilly roads that are part of the 120- mile Beara Way walking and cycling route circling the Beara Peninsula.
Along the way I lounged on a sandy beach beneath a Martello tower, a small round British fort, and pedaled in search of a Bronze Age tomb and a 10- foot- tall, 4,000- year- old stone standing in the exact center of the island that was— happily— near Sullivan’s pub. As locals manned a pool table or sat glued to bar stools talking soccer, I tucked into just caught cod with chips and bliss fully mushy peas.