Ten incredible islands to add to your Ireland bucket list

As you approach Scattery Island from the ferry which departs Kilrush, Co Clare, a manmade pillar scrapes the sky. What could it be? 

A round tower and one of only three on Irish islands after Holy Island, Lough Derg and Devenish, on Lough Erne.

The round tower is part of an early church complex of seven churches dating over several hundred years. 

The island was the centre of St Senan’s sphere of influence as he established churches around the country. 

And where you had monasteries you usually had Viking raids. 

Scattery Island was subject to a succession of their attacks with the churches plundered and the monks massacred.

But Scattery is not all about ecclesiastical history. 

There is a gorgeous lighthouse, now automated sadly, which evokes a time when the lighthouse keepers would light the wick of the burner to guide seafarers safely home.

There is a lovely walk which can be made on the full circumference of the island taking in beaches, the lighthouse, a marsh frequented by heron, and some old boreens fragrant with the scent of wildflower. 

There is even a small street on the island where some of the residents included the famous Shannon Estuary pilots who guided large ships towards Limerick City.

• scatteryislandtours.com

2. Great Saltee, Co Wexford

While it is too late this year to see the vanguard of the puffins on Great Saltee, make a note in your diary for next year. 

This Co Wexford island, which is 5km off the coast, is one of the preferred habitats of this dynamic multicoloured bird which whirr through the air like drones while emitting a gurgling sound. 

April and May are the best months to watch these fascinating animals.

It’s not too late to see the magnificent gannets though, which are readily identifiable through their muscular white bodies and yellow-tipped wings. 

It is one of the great sights in nature to watch these birds diving into the sea from a great height travelling at speeds of almost 100kph.

The birds arrive in spring and depart in the autumn when the chicks are fledged to avoid the cold winter. 

Great Saltee is a special protection area and it is vital for any visitors to approach the nesting area of the gannets with great care.

Great Saltee has a companion island in Little Saltee and their name derives from the Norse words for ‘salt’ and ‘ey’ or ‘ee’ meaning island. 

Like Tory Island, Great Saltee has also had a king, one of the Neale family (who own the island) chose the self-styled title.

• salteeferry.com at Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford

3. Tory, Co Donegal

Tory Island is almost 15km off the Co Donegal coast and for anyone in the south of the country it is a long journey. 

But isn’t that the pleasure of going to distant places, savouring the experience?

In this era of instant travel, relish the drive to catch the ferry at Magheroarty and if there are high rolling seas when you set out from the pier, which is much more usual than not, marvel at the efforts of the former islanders in crossing a massive distance by currach and their endurance on the island when storms lashed it unmercifully.

There is a relatively sizeable population on Tory and almost no trees. It has a fascinating volcanic rock formation at its eastern end which looks like congealed layers of melted chocolate.

There are a couple of lively pubs in the village and though the king, Patsy Dan Rodgers, is not there to greet new arrivals anymore, the spirit of the late artist lives on.

Walk to the western end of the island where you can see the former studio of the artist Derek Hill whose work was created at the very edge of Europe.

• toryferry.com

4. Holy Island, Co Clare

This is a grassy island in a lough along the course of the River Shannon and has no beaches unlike the other islands in this list. 

However, it is still a beautiful island and one of our most important historically.

There are dozens of islands on Lough Derg and Holy Island — Inis Cealtra is one of the largest. 

It is a companion island for Scattery in the sense that they both have a round tower. The tower was pre-dated by a church established by St Colum in the sixth century.

Over the following centuries more churches were added to the complex: St Caimin’s Church, St Michael’s Oratory, St Brigid’s Church, St Mary’s Church and The Church of the Wounded Men.

And while it has fewer churches than Scattery, it is nonetheless impressive. 

Brian Boru’s brother, Marcan, was abbot there in the 11th century and both were born locally at Killaloe. 

And in another, unfortunate, comparison with Scattery, Holy Island too was plundered by the Vikings.

This Holy Island is not to be confused with Station Island (known as Lough Derg Island) on the Co Donegal Lough Derg, which is a major pilgrimage site.

• holyisland.ie

5. Ireland’s Eye, Co Dublin

The name of this island has nothing to do with the ability to see, though its position off Dublin City halfway up the coast may give the impression it had.

Actually, it is derived from the Norse word for ‘island’, ‘ey’, like Lambay, Orkney, Dursey, and many others.

The island is bookended by varied attractions. The western end has a Martello tower which dates from the early 19th century. 

They were built by the British as watchtowers to watch out for an invasion by Napoleon’s army at the start of the 19th century.

On the eastern end where there are steep craggy cliffs, there are guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, and cormorants to be seen, and occasionally puffins.

For any budding birdwatchers, this is a perfect place to start.

Ireland’s Eye has even had a real-life murder mystery of its own after an artist was found guilty of murdering his wife while on a trip to the island in 1852. 

It was a celebrated court case with strenuous claim that the poor woman had been drowned and not murdered.

There are the ruins of an ancient church which, surprise surprise, was also attacked by the Vikings.

• islandferries.net

6. Heir Island, Co Cork

Situated about halfway between Baltimore and Schull in West Cork, Heir Island is near divine in the summer. 

Some places just have a certain feel to them and Heir Island has it in spades (and buckets, if you’re of a very young age). 

There are three lovely sheltered beaches just near the pier on the eastern shore and to idle away an afternoon or more here is to enter into heaven. 

Heir Island even has its own Olympics which takes place for children on the beach every August.

The island was ruled by the Ó Drisceoil clan in the 15th and 16th centuries. The island has no visible remnant of these times but people still live there, fishing and farming, mainly.

Walk to the far side of the island, where the Fastnet Rock blinks further out to the western seas, and where there are much fewer people. 

There is a lovely grassy path where you can sink your feet in the soft grass and clover.

And if you are missing the attractions of town or city life there is even a mini-pizzeria and an art gallery near the pier.

• heirisland.ie for Cunnamore pier about 10km west of Skibbereen.

7. Whiddy Island, Co Cork

Whiddy Island is the largest island in the inner part of Bantry Bay but is dwarfed by the vast Bere Island further along the coast. 

It is best known for being home to Ireland’s reserve oil storage but these huge tanks are on the far side of the island and well out of view if you are on a day out.

The island has had a fascinating history with the British using it as a naval base in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

For the enthusiast of military history, several gun batteries from that period can be found along the southern shore where they initially guarded the entrance to Bantry against the failed French invasion of 1796. 

And in World War One, the Americans used the island as a seaplane base from which they patrolled the seas for U-boats around the Fastnet.

Whiddy is part of a lovely blueway kayaking trail which starts from Abbey Strand outside Bantry and which connects Whiddy with the islands of Rabbit, Chapel, Hog and Horse islands. 

An extension of the Sheep’s Head Way can also be undertaken on Whiddy.

The old schoolhouse was recently converted to accommodation and there is a fine pub on the pier.

• whiddyferry.com

8. Inishkea South, Co Mayo

Inishkea South, and its extremely close neighbour Inishkea North, are two large islands off the Mullet Peninsula in Co Mayo in the extreme northwest of the county.

To see the ruins of old houses on this island half submerged in sand which has accumulated over the decades, seeing as there is no one there to clear it away, is literally to observe the sands of time in action. 

Prior to the Famine, 62 people lived here while farming the land and fishing the seas. There was even a whaling station set up by the Norwegians in the early 20th century. 

Now, the screech of the oystercatcher is the dominant sound.

The name is derived from the Irish ‘Inis Gé’ (Goose Island) after the skeins of barnacle geese that visit from Greenland between April and October. 

And for any birdwatchers out there, these islands are a dreamland with several vagrants sometimes seeking landfall, including snowy owls and surf scoters.

Apart from the lovely walks around the island, there is a sheltered beach with silver sand for a swim. The Inishkeas are a nationally important breeding site for Atlantic grey seals. A simply magnificent day out.

• blacksodseasafari.ie
• belmulletboatcharters.com/inishkea

9. Inishmaan, Co Galway

Once home to the writer of The Playboy of the Western World, JM Synge, this Co Galway island is a home away from home and though entirely modern too, it does evoke a 19th-century feeling. 

Synge’s former home, Teach Synge, is now a museum complete with a thatched roof where artefacts of the playwright’s life can be seen. 

He is also commemorated at Synge’s Seat, a small enclosure on a high ridge overlooking the sea. Not a bad place to meditate and take it all in.

It is the middle of the Aran Islands, flanked to the northwest by Inishmore and the southeast by Inisheer. 

Both of these are also magnificent though of different character. Inishmaan’s essence is in its limestone rock with huge sheets of the glistening light grey rock forming much of the island. 

The Burren and the Aran islands are famous for their flowering plants especially the gentians and a variety of orchids. 

All three islands are a continuation of the Burren whose extensive limestone rocks were formed at the bottom of the sea about 340 million years ago in the Carboniferous period.

There are lovely sinuous walks around the island following the high field walls.

• doolinferry.com (Doolin, Co Clare)
• aranislandferries.com (Rossaveal, Co Galway)

10. Inchagoill, Lough Corrib, Co Galway

Inchagoill is an entirely wooded island in the middle of Lough Corrib, the enormous lake which is mainly in Co Galway and partly in Co Mayo. 

Its attractions are twofold. First, the wonderful walks through its tracks which lead off in a myriad of directions under the canopy of native woodland.

Second, the island has some very important early Christian monuments which place it high on the level of importance of such sites. 

Not so high as Clonmacnoise, Skellig Michael, or Scattery Island, but pretty high nonetheless. 

The monuments are all the more surprising for being found in the middle of a wood on an island. 

The tiny St Patrick’s Church dates from the sixth century and is dedicated to our patron saint.

Beside the church is Lugnad’s stone which bears the earliest known inscription in Latin in Ireland: Lia Lugnaedon Macc Limenuehor ‘The stone of Luguaedon [Lugnad], son of Limenuich, the nephew of St Patrick’. 

A second church is the 12th-century Romanesque Church of the Saints with very unusual carved heads. 

The island’s name translates as ‘The Island of the Devout Foreigner’ relating to a certain holy person who there lived of old, according to a historical note.

• corribcruises.com from Oughterard, Co Galway and Cong, Co Galway/Co Mayo