Carbery's Hundred Isles are the islands along the coast of the Baronies of

Carbery West Carbery West () is a barony in County Cork in Ireland. It has been split since the nineteenth century into East and West Divisions (''an Roinn Thoir/Thiar''). Legal context Baronies were created after the Norman invasion of Ireland as divisions ...

and Carbery East, successors to the medieval

Barony of Carbery Carbery, or the Barony of Carbery, was once the largest barony in Ireland, and essentially a small, semi-independent kingdom on the southwestern coast of Munster, in what is now County Cork, from its founding in the 1230s by Donal Gott MacCarth ...

, on the

Celtic Sea The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the north by St George's Channel, Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as wel ...

, in the far south-west of Ireland. It is a term which includes those islands in and around Long Island Bay and Roaringwater Bay,

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

. Because of the Gulf Stream influence, the islands have a mild climate. However, most of them are exposed to the elements, so patches of lush vegetation contrast with treeless expanses of hill and bog, fringed with rocky cliffs and mixed shingle and sand beaches. The eastern islands within the estuary of the Ilen River are more sheltered and fertile. The phrase "Carbery's Hundred Isles" is taken from the narrative poem ''The Sack of Baltimore'' by Thomas Davis, published in 1844, which tells of the raid on the village of Baltimore by Algerian pirates in 1631, in which most of the inhabitants were kidnapped and brought to the slave markets of Algiers. Setting the scene, the first line reads "The summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred isles". This is an instance of poetic license, since there are no more than 50 islands in the archipelago. The popularity of the poem in the 19th century meant that the phrase passed into popular parlance, and subsequently into tourist-industry literature. The area was visited by writer

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

in the 1720s, who described the islands and area in a poem.

Islands

The largest islands in the area include Cléire and

Sherkin Island Sherkin Island, historically called Inisherkin (), lies southwest of County Cork in Ireland alongside other islands of Roaringwater Bay. It had a population of 111 people at the time of the 2016 Census, and measures long by wide. The i ...

. Others include: *

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

* Castle Island * Carthy's Islands *

Horse Island, County Cork Horse Island ( Gaeilge: ''Oileán na gCapall'') is a small inhabited island in Roaringwater Bay, County Cork, Ireland, off the coast of Schull, that forms part of Carbery's Hundred Isles. No ferry service operates to and from the island; howev ...

West Skeam Island West Skeam Island is a 33-acre island in Roaringwater Bay, County Cork, Ireland that forms part of Carbery's Hundred Isles. The island is privately owned and was for sale in 2013. There are three cottages on the island, as well as some farmland. ...

* East Skeam Island * Heir Island * Calves Island (Calf Island West, Calf Island Middle, Calf Island East) * Spanish Island * Ringarogy Island * Goat Island (Beg/Mór) * Rabbit island

References

External links

Sherkin Island

West Cork Islands
{{County Cork Islands of County Cork

Islands

See also

References

External links