Dursey Island ( ga, Baoi Bhéarra or ') lies at the southwestern tip of the

Beara Peninsula Beara ( ga, Béarra) or the Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare "river" (actually a bay) to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It contains two mountain ranges running down it ...

in the west of

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. Dursey Island is 6.5 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide. The island is separated from the mainland by a narrow stretch of water, Dursey Sound, which has a very strong

tidal race Tidal race or tidal rapid is a natural occurrence whereby a fast-moving tide passes through a constriction, resulting in the formation of waves, eddies and hazardous currents. The constriction can be a passage where the sides narrow, for example ...

, with the submerged Flag Rock close to the centre of the channel. The island has just six or so permanent residents, and is connected to the mainland by Ireland's only cable car. The cable car system is due to be closed for maintenance from April until November 2022, during which period a temporary ferry is due to operate. Dursey has no shops, pubs or restaurants. At one point there was a post office on the island; this has since closed.

Geography and fauna

The

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

s on the island are Ballynacallagh, Kilmichael, and Tilickafinna. There are three main peaks, the highest 252m. The promontories and rocks off Dursey include:

Bull Rock

Off the western point of the island are three rocks: Bull Rock, Cow Rock and Calf Rock.

Bull Rock Lighthouse The Bull Rock Lighthouse, is an active aid to navigation located 4km off Dursey Island, Ireland. History The lighthouse is the second one constructed in this location. The first was built in 1866 on nearby ''Calf Rock''. That lighthouse was cas ...

, which stands on Bull Rock, was built in 1888 and automated in March 1991. Bull Rock was inhabited until this time.

Calf Rock

A staffed lighthouse on Calf Rock was destroyed in a storm in 1881 and its remains can still be seen.

Cow Rock

Cow Rock is home to a number of nesting colonies of seabirds.

Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the b ...

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s and

basking shark The basking shark (''Cetorhinus maximus'') is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach in leng ...

are sometimes seen in the sea off the island.

History

Oileán Baoi (Dursey Island), Standing stone - geograph

Prehistoric sites have been surveyed on the island, including examples of

bullaun A bullaun ( ga, bullán; from a word cognate with "bowl" and French ''bol'') is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often water filled. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may sit in the bullaun. The size of the bullaun is high ...

and cup-marked stones in Ballynacallagh, a prehistoric hut site at Killowen, and a radial stone enclosure at Maughanaclea. More prominent archaeological sites are visible at Ballynacallagh, where there is a ruined monastic church and graveyard, and at the site of a castle on Oileán Beag ("Small Island"). In 1602 this castle site was a garrison of the

O'Sullivan Beare Philip O'Sullivan Beare ( ga, Pilib Ó Súilleabháin Béirre, 1590–1660) was an Irish soldier who became more famous as a writer. He fled to Habsburg Spain during the time of Tyrone's Rebellion, when Gaelic Ireland was making its last stand ...

family. It was destroyed (along with

Dunboy Castle Dunboy Castle () is a ruined 15th century castle on the Beara Peninsula in south-west Ireland near the town of Castletownbere. The castle's tower house and bawn were destroyed in the 1602 Siege of Dunboy, though its ruins remain open to the p ...

) during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Kingdom of France, France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by t ...

Philip O'Sullivan Beare Philip O'Sullivan Beare ( ga, Pilib Ó Súilleabháin Béirre, 1590–1660) was an Irish soldier who became more famous as a writer. He fled to Habsburg Spain during the time of Tyrone's Rebellion, when Gaelic Ireland was making its last stand ...

claimed that all of the occupants of the castle were killed by a force under the command of George Carew in the

Dursey massacre The Dursey massacre, also called the Dursey Island massacre, took place in June 1602 during the Nine Years' War on Dursey Island off the Beara Peninsula in southern Ireland. According to Philip O'Sullivan Beare, a group of around three hundred Ga ...

. The 300 islanders were killed; Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare gathered his people from across Cork and set off to take shelter with the O'Rourkes of Leitrim. Of the 1,000 that set off, 35 survived to reach the O'Rourkes after the convoy was repeatedly attacked. Little evidence of the castle site remains. On the highest point on the island, at Tilickafinna, is a signal tower dating to the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

. This narrow rectangular tower had two storeys over a basement, with each storey supported by vaulted stonework. The tower has been in ruin since the mid-19th century. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

a whitewashed sign saying ''

Éire () is Irish for "Ireland", the name of both an island in the North Atlantic and the sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland which governs 84% of the island's landmass. The latter is distinct from Northern Ireland, which covers the remaind ...

'' was built and painted close to the signal tower to indicate to pilots that they were overflying neutral Ireland. In July 1943 a Luftwaffe

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

crashed in fog on Crow Head near Dursey, killing all crew.

Tourism

The island is popular with day-trippers and walkers during the summer months. A waymarked section of the

Beara Way The Beara Way () is a long-distance trail in the southwest of Ireland. It is a long circular trail around the Beara Peninsula that begins and ends in Glengarriff, County Cork, also passing through parts of County Kerry. It is typically comp ...

loops around the island. Dursey Island's Beara Way walk marks the beginning of Europe's

E8 European long distance path The E8 European long distance path or E8 path is one of the European long-distance paths, leading 4,700 km (2,920 miles) across Europe, from Cork in Ireland to Bulgaria. Route After Ireland it crosses the Irish Sea into Wales and the ...

, which crosses Europe, ending in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

. Spanning Dursey Sound, the

aerial tramway An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway, aerial tram, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip ...

is Ireland's only cable car, and one of the few cable cars that cross the sea in Europe. Used both by tourists and the local population, it has been closed for maintenance for much of 2022. Dursey Sound is also one of the "signature discovery points" along the Wild Atlantic Way - a coastal touring route that stretches along Ireland's Atlantic coastline. Dursey has no shops, pubs or restaurants, but a few holiday homes are rented on the island.

Gallery

File:Ruined church, Dursey Island. - geograph.org.uk - 282370.jpg, Ecclesiastical ruins and graveyard at Ballynacallagh File:Crashed ju88 dursey island.JPG,

Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

memorial sign on the mainland next to Dursey cable car File:Signal Tower, Dursey Island - geograph.org.uk - 350237.jpg, Napoleonic era signal tower File:Neutrality - Dursey - geograph.org.uk - 283765.jpg, Remains of World War II "EIRE" neutrality sign File:BS4 small.jpg, A

feeds in the Dursey Sound.

References

{{Authority control Islands of County Cork Tourist attractions in County Cork Beara peninsula