Description
?? Forget “Love Island” folks as Inishkea is the real deal! ??
Offshore Belmullet Peninsula, County Mayo, Ireland
On arrival to this almost frozen in time island I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw all these colourful sheep running through the abandoned village straight onto the sandy shore before me! The descendent farmers now from the mainland still graze their flocks of sheep on Inishkea. On this very day of my arrival it was the islands annual sheep shearing day. They worked together with sheep dogs & herd their flocks down to the harbour where their wool was clipped, bagged & shipped back to mainland for sale. They worked non-stop for 8 solid hours without a single break to shear all the wool in time for their last sailing of the day back home. This is an unchanged rhythm for thousands of years which I was honoured to whiteness.
A few miles off shore western Mayo lies this stunning forgotten island. Sadly it is now uninhabited due to the final 10 male islanders drowning during a freak storm in 1927, God rest their souls. The women & children held on for a while but due to harsh times & the loss of their husbands they were forced to re-home on the mainland in 1934 just to survive. The earliest evidence of settlement on Inishkea goes back at least 5,000 years and the island has numerous archaeological sites from the Neolithic and several Early Christian Monastic sites.
Inishkea is relatively low lying and everywhere is covered in fine pure white sand, often blown into drifts by the strong winds where it fills the houses of this seafront abandoned village. The ocean surrounding this island is crystal clear which reflects the most stunning shades of green & blues your mind could ever visualise. Some of the clearest waters I have ever set eyes on!
