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Islands of Ireland: This Arctic tern sanctuary has inspired some flights of fancy (Irish Examiner)

25 Feb (Irish Examiner).- This island connection to Spain lies to the west of the harbour near the headland of Collorus and south of the lovely O’Sullivan’s Bar at Bunaw.

DAN MACCARTHY, 25 Feb (Irish Examiner).-

Our coastline has numerous reminders of our maritime connections with Spain and placenames record various seafaring adventures from the Spanish Armada to piracy to fishing.

Spanish Point in Co. Clare and Spanish Island at Baltimore, Co. Cork, are just two such. So too, in Co. Kerry we find a placename to indicate contact with the Iberian Peninsula.

Kilmakilloge Harbour sits near the Cork and Kerry border amid a cathedral of mountains on the Beara Peninsula (also named for a Spanish princess). Slieve Miskish and the Caha Mountains form the barrier to the south while across Kenmare River to the north squat two more ranges in the Dunkerrons and the famous Macgillycuddy’s Reeks.

There is an abundance of versions of Kilmakilloge, among them Cill Mocheallóg, Kill McCloge and Kilmokilloge, and which ultimately translates as the church of St Mochelloc. For all its size this mighty bay can only boast of three islands: Grinneen Island, Green Island and Spanish Island, all mere scraps, but nonetheless enticing.

This island connection to Spain lies to the west of the harbour near the headland of Collorus and south of the lovely O’Sullivan’s Bar at Bunaw. It is only about 50m in length and not even that across. It is more properly an islet but the Ordnance Survey seems happy to call it an island. The reason it is so named is somewhat obscure.

A travelogue of a sailing expedition published in the Tralee Chronicle in 1870 gave a vivid description and a possible reason for the island’s name.

“Before we turned into the main river we passed an island on which was a singular bank of earth, wasting year by year by the action of the tide, and almost gone to nothing. It was the last remains of a moraine, deposited who can guess when, by a glacier which has left its scorings everywhere on the hillsides.

“The people call it Spanish Island and have a legend that one of the ships of the Armada was wrecked there. It is an unlikely story. No galleon which had doubled the Blaskets would have turned out of its course into the Kenmare River, nor if it had wandered into such a place could easily have been wrecked there.

“More likely it was a fishing station at a time when Newfoundland was undiscovered, and fleets came annually to these seas from Coruna and Bilbao, for their bacaloa – their Lenten cod. As many as two hundred Spanish smacks were then sometimes seen together in the harbour at Valentia.”

That seems a perfectly valid explanation and one whose claim to exactitude is a lot stronger though not so fanciful as another writer’s interpretation. Writing in the same newspaper another correspondent described the harbour as being so commodious and safe that the whole British navy [in 1870] may safely anchor within it.

Of the island, he wrote that “tradition assures us that there was once a large Spanish settlement or city extending far beyond the pier there [Kilmakilloge], and now covered by the sea, There are still some old fishermen living in the locality who would persuade one that in fine summer weather they often saw the walls etc, of long streets far below the surface while rowing over them.

“It was a matter of history that there was an extensive commerce carried on between this port and Spain formerly.”

The first mention indicates that the island was larger before being eroded, which could tie in with the notion of it being a fishing station. And of course, pilchard curing thrived in Kenmare Bay in the 17th century.

Spanish Island has been one of the strongest locations for Arctic terns attracted by the low vegetation. At one stage 60 to 70 pairs nesting pairs were reported there. It was regarded as the third most important colony in Co. Kerry.

Other important sites in the county are at Illauntannig and the Maharees. The bird is capable of flying prodigious distances. It would need to, as it journeys from its breeding grounds in the Arctic south to the Antarctic and back north again each year: almost 20,000km each way.

 

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