Some folks might know Ireland for Guinness, U2, St. Patrick's Day (traditionally a reverent Christian holiday), and not much else. Others might recognize renowned tourist sites like the imposing seaside embattlements of the Cliffs of Moher. Yet others know that the soul of Ireland -- much like any other country -- often lives in its quietest, most unseen places. And in the case of Scattery Island in the Shannon Estuary, properly Inis Cathaigh in Irish, visitors can find that silent soul. They can also
find an abandoned spit of panoramically beautiful land filled with ruins and overflowing history, stories of battle with a magic serpent, breathtaking walks, and stunning views of the sky and sea.
Much like Skellig Michael further south, Scattery Island (aka, Inis Cathaigh, pronounced "Inish Ka-hee") was founded as a monastic island by Saint Senan in the 6th century. Born in 488 C.E. towards the end of Saint Patrick's life, Senan is dubbed one of the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland" and founded five monasteries across Ireland. Two of Scattery Island's landmarks -- St. Senan's Well and Ard na nAingeal Church -- are associated directly to Senan, while the rest of the island's scattered foundations, fortifications, walls, and huts tell the story of the centuries that followed, like the 19th-century Scattery Island Lighthouse at the island's tip.
Visitors to Scattery Island can admire the sky and sea on a short, 30-minute ferry ride from the marina at nearby Kilrush. You can easily explore the 182-acre island on foot, and see it as part of a half-day stop on a larger trip through the beauty and splendor of Country Clare, County Kerry, and beyond.
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Walk Amidst The Legends And Ruins Of Scattery Island
Think of Scattery Islad as a condensed, magical nugget of overlooked storytelling and natural beauty that'll live on in memory and photos. Much of the joy of visiting comes just from walking around the unnamed, gray stones of its mossy ruins, particularly the walls of a church known as "The Cathedral" which took 200 years to complete, plus the neighboring spire of Scattery Round Tower. All these buildings stand against the watery panorama of the Shannon Estuary, which flows out into the Atlantic Ocean and fuses with the dome of the sky along the horizon.
But far from being empty structures (metaphorically), Scattery Island's ruins tell a tale that's part myth and part history. St. Senan's buildings remind visitors of the island's Irish name, Inis Cathaigh, derived from a story of Senan fighting a monstrous serpent, the Cathagh, off the island. Scattery Island also contains very real marks of Norse attacks, Norman invasions, and even had a defensive battery built in 1814 during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. The last families left the island by 1978.
There's only one ferry from one town, Kilrush, that you can use to visit Scattery Island, which only adds to the island's mystique and sense of inaccessibility. The ferry is part of an inclusive tour package that costs about $37 per adult (based on exchange rates at the time of this writing), heads out once or twice a day, lasts from two to 2.5 hours depending on the tide, and includes a guide to walk you around the island's sites along a trail. And because this is Ireland, prepare for the rain and the mud by wearing appropriate clothing and footgear, especially because the island's trails wander onto grass.
Building Scattery Island Into An Irish Road Trip
Because visitors can tour Scattery Island in a few hours, a visit to the abandoned island is short enough to build into a larger road trip through Ireland, using Kilrush to illustrate. Kilrush, where the ferry to Scattery Island departs from, is a marvelously quaint, walkable village with picturesque storefronts like the kind seen all across Ireland. Kilorglin, Cahersiveen, and Kenmare come to mind, as they're all similarly-sized villages with only a handful of streets. All three of those villages sit along the Ring of Kerry, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous loop of road that travel writer Rick Steves calls "undeniably scenic." The ring itself is a mere two and a half hours away from Kilrush, which spells out your itinerary right there.
Travelers who've finished the Ring of Kerry and are heading north along Ireland's western coast can easily stop by Kilrush and Scattery Island on the way, or vice-verse. The Ring of Kerry takes two and a half hours to drive through, non-stop, but ought to take an entire day to pause and admire the grandeur of prominent locations like the sinuous mountain pass of Moll's Gap, the lakeside pass of the Gap of Dunloe, and Muckross House, where Queen Victoria stayed on a state visit in 1861.
We can also extend the Ring of Kerry to include the neighboring Kilarney National Park and its hiking trails over Ireland's round and green, rugged mountains. If you take a couple days to do both of those, and another day to head from County Kerry north through Limerick, Ennis, to Kilrush, and visit Scattery Island in County Clare, that's one of the most beautifully compact three-day itineraries you could ask for in Ireland. Magic, mystery, ruins, history, and nature await.
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Read the original article on Islands.
