Qualla: Clare Island

Clare Island: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brendanconway, Public domain. Grainne Ni Mhaille - Grace O'Malley, the pirate queen - was almost certainly born on Clare Island around 1530. She held its harbour from a tower house on the east coast, kept her fleet anchored in its shelter, was probably baptized and married in its small Cistercian abbey, and tradition holds that she lies buried beneath a canopied tomb in that abbey's nave. Four hundred years later, the island is still one of those places where the past is not exactly past - the tower stands, the abbey stands, and the same Atlantic that carried Granuaile's galleys still rolls into the long sweep of Clew Bay.

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Image: Brendanconway | Public domain

Clare Island: Eight Miles Out

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Towel401, CC BY-SA 4.0. Clare Island sits in the mouth of Clew Bay, about eight kilometres off the County Mayo coast - the largest island in the bay, with a single mountain (Knockmore, 462 metres) rising abruptly out of the sea on its western side. The island measures about eight kilometres east to west...

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Image: Towel401 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Clare Island: The Armada Wreck

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ridiculopathy, CC0. In the autumn of 1588, the surviving ships of the Spanish Armada were scattered around the coasts of Britain and Ireland by storms after their defeat in the English Channel. One of those ships came ashore on Clare Island. The crew, weakened by weeks at sea, faced what was then st...

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Image: Ridiculopathy | CC0

Clare Island: Granuaile's Strongholds

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michelle Owner of the Squishy from Denver, CC BY 2.0. Grace O'Malley's authority on this coast was anchored in three tower houses: Granuaile's Castle on the east shore of Clare Island, Carrickkildavnet Castle on Achill, and Rockfleet Castle further into Clew Bay. From these she ran a maritime operation that included trade, fishery p...

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Image: Michelle Owner of the Squishy from Denver | CC BY 2.0

Clare Island: The Lighthouse and Its Optic

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ridiculopathy, CC0. John Denis Browne, the 1st Marquess of Sligo, established the Clare Island Lighthouse in 1806. The original structure suffered both a fire (29 September 1813, careless disposal of oil-lamp wicks) and a lightning strike (1834); the rebuilt version served until 28 September 1965, w...

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Image: Ridiculopathy | CC0

Clare Island: The Survey

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oliver Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between 1909 and 1911, the Belfast naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger led an exhaustive biological survey of Clare Island - mapping every plant, animal, mollusc, and lichen on the island and in the surrounding waters. The Clare Island Survey was unprecedented at the time and has ser...

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Image: Oliver Dixon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Clare Island: Living There Now

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Shires, CC BY-SA 2.0. The island has a primary school, a post office, a community of about 150 permanent residents, and the kind of summer rhythm that brings hikers, divers, and festival-goers across on the ferry. The Clare Island Film Festival has run annually since 2014. The Saw Doctors wrote a song...

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Image: Bob Shires | CC BY-SA 2.0