Achill Island

The island

Achill is the largest island off the west coast of Ireland, at around 147 square kilometres, and it has been linked to the mainland by a bridge over Achill Sound since 1887. The present bridge, the Michael Davitt Bridge, opened in 2008; before there was any bridge at all, Achill was a place you went to by boat, and the sense of separation is still part of its character. The population is a few thousand, and the island is a working place as much as a visitor one — there are farms, small businesses and a real community out there.

The island's coast is its main attraction. The headland of the Croaghaun, on the northwest coast, is a long wall of cliff with a good view across to the mainland and the Twelve Bens. Keem Bay, on the west side, is a black-pebble beach with a famous sea stack, the "Finn's Boot," off its end. The Dugort peninsula, to the south, is a quieter stretch of headland and small coves, and Dooagh Lagoon, on the south coast, is a flat, sheltered place that the islanders have farmed for generations.

Duggan's Rocks

The small lighthouse of Duggan's Rocks, off the Dugort coast, is one of the island's best-known stories. Local tradition tells of a lighthouse keeper and his son, and of a storm in the 1930s in which the young keeper was lost; the story is part of the island's memory, though the full facts are not entirely certain. The lighthouse is a good place to stand and think about the sea, and it is one of the few places on the island where the story and the place are so closely joined.

When to go

The light is best in late summer, when the heather is coming into colour and the days are still long. The coast is at its wildest in a winter gale, and the island is a different place in each of the four seasons.

Practical

Free to explore. There are a number of car parks around the coast, some of them with a small charge. The island is best explored by car, and a full day is not enough to do it justice. The village of Keel, where the bridge lands, and the town of Islandbridge on the west side are the main bases.