Valentia Island () is one of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

's most westerly points. It lies off the

Iveragh Peninsula The Iveragh Peninsula () is located in County Kerry in Ireland. It is the largest peninsula in southwestern Ireland. A mountain range, the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, lies in the centre of the peninsula. Carrauntoohil, its highest mountain, is als ...

in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at

Portmagee Portmagee () is a village in County Kerry, Ireland. The village is located on the Iveragh peninsula south of Valentia Island, and is known locally as 'the ferry', in reference to its purpose as a crossing point to the island. Access to Valentia ...

. A car ferry also departs from Reenard Point to Knightstown, the island's main settlement, from April to October. Another, smaller village named Chapeltown sits at roughly the midpoint of the island, from the bridge. Valentia Island's permanent population is 665 (). It is about long by almost wide, making it the fifth-biggest island off the Irish coast.

Name

The English name 'Valentia' or 'Valencia' Island does not come from the Spanish city of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

. Instead it comes from the Irish name of Valentia Harbour, ''cuan Bhéil Inse'', "harbour-mouth of the island". It was anglicized as 'Bealinche' and 'Ballentia' before evolving into 'Valentia'. It is possible the spelling was influenced by Spanish sailors; there is a grave marker to Spanish sailors lost at sea in the Catholic cemetery at Kylemore The Irish name for the island is ''Dairbhre'', probably meaning "oak isle". It was historically anglicized as 'Dariry'.

History

Valentia was the eastern terminus of the first commercially viable

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

. The first attempt in 1857 to land a cable from Ballycarbery Strand on the mainland just east of Valentia Island ended in disappointment. After subsequent failures of cables landed at Knightstown in 1858 and Foilhommerum Bay in 1865, the vast endeavor finally resulted in commercially viable transatlantic telegraph communications from Foilhommerum Bay to Heart's Content, Newfoundland in 1866. Transatlantic telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island for one hundred years, ending with

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

International terminating its cable operations in 1966. Before the transatlantic telegraph, American longitude measurements had a uncertainty with respect to European longitudes. Because of the importance of accurate longitudes to safe navigation, the U.S. Coast Survey mounted a longitude expedition in 1866 to link longitudes in the United States accurately to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

Benjamin Gould Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27, 1824 – November 26, 1896) was a pioneering American astronomer. He is noted for creating the ''Astronomical Journal'', discovering the Gould Belt, and for founding of the Argentine National Observatory and ...

and his partner A. T. Mosman reached Valentia on 2 October 1866. They built a temporary longitude observatory beside the Foilhommerum Cable Station to support synchronized longitude observations with Heart's Content, Newfoundland. After many rainy and cloudy days, the first transatlantic longitude signals were exchanged between Foilhommerum and Heart's Content on 24 October 1866. On 21 May 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh made his first landfall in Europe over Dingle Bay and Valentia Island on his solo flight from New York to Paris. On the 1927 Mercator chart used by the famous pilot, it was labeled Valencia. In 1993 an undergraduate geology student discovered fossilised

tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids ( pelycosaurs, extinct t ...

trackway Historic roads (historic trails in USA and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient trackways ...

s, footprints preserved in Devonian rocks, on the north coast of the island at Dohilla (). About 385 million years ago, a primitive

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

passed near a river margin in the sub-equatorial river basin that is now southwestern Ireland and left prints in the damp sand. The prints were preserved by silt and sand overlying them, and were converted to rock over geological time. The Valentia Island trackways are among the oldest signs of vertebrate life on land. On 14 March 2021, Valentia Island was the site of the first

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...

sighting in Ireland.

Places of interest

The combined features and history of the island make it an attractive

tourist destination A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

, easily accessible from the popular

Ring of Kerry The Ring of Kerry ( ga, Mórchuaird Chiarraí) is a circular tourist route in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. Clockwise from Killarney it follows the N71 to Kenmare, then the N70 around the Iveragh Peninsula to Killorglin – passi ...

route. * Geokaun Mountain and Fogher Cliffs : the highest mountain on Valentia Island and the sea cliffs of on its northern face. *On the northeast of the island stands Glanleam House amid

sub-tropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

gardens. Protected by

windbreak A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edges ...

s from Atlantic gales and never touched by frost, these gardens provide the mildest

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

in Ireland. Starting in the 1830s, Sir Peter George Fitzgerald, the 19th

Knight of Kerry Knight of Kerry (), also called The Green Knight, is one of three Hiberno-Norman hereditary knighthoods, all of which existed in Ireland since feudal times. The other two were The White Knight (surname fixed as Fitzgibbon), being dormant sinc ...

(1808–1880), planted these gardens and stocked them with a unique collection of rare and tender plants from the southern hemisphere, normally grown under glass in

. The gardens are laid out in a naturalistic style as a series of walks. There are plants from South America, Australia, New Zealand (the tallest

tree fern The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

s in Europe), Chile and Japan. The gardens are memorialized in a selected golden-variegated ''

Luma apiculata ''Luma apiculata'', the Chilean myrtle or ''temu'', is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, native to the central Andes between Chile and Argentina, at 33 to 45° south latitude. Growing to tall and wide, it is a vigorous, bushy, e ...

'' "Glanleam Gold" that originated as a sport in the garden. The gardens are open to the public. *The slate quarry which reopened in 1998 provided slates for the British

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...

. *The island also hosts a heritage centre which tells the story of the geology, human, natural and industrial history of the island, with exhibits on the Cable Station, the Marine Radio Station and the RNLI's Valentia Lifeboat Station. *The Telegraph Field (or Longitude Field) is the site of the first permanent communications link between Europe and North America

Transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

s operated from Valentia Island from 1866.

Gallery

File:IMG 4298 Dolmen Rock 1.jpg, Dolmen Rock, western slope of Mt. Geokaun File:IMG 4371 Balleyhearney House 1.jpg, Balleyhearney House, Balleyhearney East. 'Famine Era' hospital adjacent to the Knights' Wood. File:IMG 9407 Rare Snow Day Main Road Valentia Island.jpg, Rare snowy day, Main Road, Valentia Island looking toward Knightstown, Valentia Harbour and Cahersiveen File:IMG 9227 View from Mt Geokuan Summit 2.jpg, Portion of the view from the summit of Mt. Geokaun ("yo-kawn"). Valentia Harbour and Cahersiveen are in the background File:9228 View from Mt Geokuan Summit 3.jpg, Portion of the view from the summit of Mt. Geokaun ("yo-kawn"). Valentia Harbour and Letter are in the background File:IMG 5110 CullooRock 1.jpg, View from Culloo Rock. Dingle Peninsula, Dingle Bay and the north shore of Valentia Island (including Fogher Cliffs) are in the background. File:Bray Head, Valentia Island.jpg, Bray Head view looking west with Skellig Islands in distance File:Portmagee Channel from Bray.jpg, View of Portmagee Channel looking south-east from Bray Head File:Valentia lighthouse.jpg, Valentia lighthouse and surrounding fortifications File:Knightstown aerial.jpg, Knightstown File:Glanleam House.jpg, Glanleam House File:Slate Quarry.jpg, Valentia Slate Quarry

Climate

Valentia Island has an oceanic climate (''Cfb''). Valentia Island is, on average, the wettest weather station in Ireland. Valentia Island sits on the eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite it being on the same latitude as St. Anthony in Newfoundland on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, it enjoys much milder winters thanks to the moderating effect of prevailing west or south west winds, and the effects of the warming Gulf Stream current. Snow and frost are rare, and because of this the island can support many sub-tropical varieties of plants.

Sport

Valentia Young Islanders GAA Valentia Young Islanders are a Gaelic Athletic Association club from Valentia Island, South County Kerry, Ireland. They play in Division 4 of the county league and in the Kerry Novice Football Championship. The club's most recent success has ...

is the local

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include t ...

club. Valentia is a popular fishing location, and Valentia waters hold the Irish records for

conger eel ''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during ...

red sea bream Red seabream is a name given to at least two species of fish of the family Sparidae, ''Pagrus major'' and ''Pagellus bogaraveo''. ''Pagrus major'' ''Pagrus major'' is of great culinary and cultural importance in Japan, and is known as mada ...

, Ray's bream and

lesser spotted dogfish The small-spotted catshark (''Scyliorhinus canicula''), also known as the sandy dogfish, lesser-spotted dogfish, rough-hound or morgay (in Scotland and Cornwall), is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found on the continental shelves ...

Notable people

* Helen Blackburn who was a leading women's rights campaigner in England was born here in 1842. * Valentia was considered home to

Mug Ruith Mug Ruith (or Mogh Roith, "slave of the wheel") is a figure in Irish mythology, a powerful blind druid of Munster who lived on Valentia Island, County Kerry. He could grow to enormous size, and his breath caused storms and turned men to stone. He ...

, a powerful blind druid in

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths native to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era, being part of ancient Celtic religion. Many myths were later written down in the early medieval era by Ch ...

. * The O'Sullivans, headed by the O'Sullivan Beare, owned much of Valentia until the 17th century. * The noted naturalist Maude Jane Delap lived and worked in Knightstown, carrying out important research into the marine life surrounding Valentia and identifying many new species. * Valentia is the home of former Gaelic footballer

Mick O'Connell Michael O'Connell (born 4 January 1937) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer. Throughout his 25-year club career, he played for Young Islanders, winning seven South Kerry Championship titles during a golden age for the club; he also played fo ...

, and the birthplace of John J "Sceilg" O'Kelly, leader of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

from 1926. * Gaelic footballer Ger O'Driscoll was born on Valentia Island. * The American solo rock climber Michael Reardon died on 13 July 2007 at the Fogher Cliffs of Valentia Island when he was swept out to sea following a successful climb. *

Gerald Spring Rice, 6th Baron Monteagle of Brandon Gerald Spring Rice, 6th Baron Monteagle of Brandon (5 July 1926 – 17 November 2013) was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer, banker and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative peer. Early life Spring Rice was the son of Charles Spring Rice, 5th ...

was brought up on the island, as were many other members of the Spring Rice family.

References

External links

Valentia Island PortalValentia Heritage CentreValentia Island Annual Music FestivalThe Laying of the Atlantic Telegraph CableAlan Hall - Sculptor of the First Transatlantic Cable and First message sent to USA 1856 Memorial

Submarine Telegraphs, Their History, Construction, and Working by Charles BrightLinking European and American Longitude
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=QoiA4GjAHwwC&pg=RA27-PA54&lpg=RA27-PA54&dq=foilhommerum&source=web&ots=QMAfd_bMVT&sig=UeL-bt3ugcjstwQs9LomoeEN3qU#PRA25-PA53,M1 The Transatlantic Longitude as Determined by the Coast Survey Expedition of 1866]
Valentia Island Sea AnglingThe Telegraph Field - Valentia IslandIrelandbyways site Valentia Information