Qualla: Dunmore Head https://qualla.com/dunmore-head en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/dunmore-head-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Dunmore Head https://qualla.com/dunmore-head Dunmore Head: Introduction https://qualla.com/dunmore-head/ Photo credit Anne Patterson, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the Star Wars sequel The Last Jedi needed a planet at the edge of the galaxy in 2017, the production crew came here. Dunmore Head is the westernmost point of mainland Ireland — and one of the westernmost points of Europe — a long, steep headland of sandstone that drops three hundred feet into the Atlantic. The sky is enormous, the wind unrelenting, the Blasket Islands a procession of dark shapes offshore. Cinematically, it stood in for the planet Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker had retreated from the galaxy in self-imposed exile. The film crew left. The headland remained exactly the same: an immense slab of rock at the end of Europe, doing what it has done since the Devonian period.

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Image: Anne Patterson | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/dunmore-head-wp/gc28-dunmore-head-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Dunmore Head: Old Red Sandstone https://qualla.com/dunmore-head/ Photo credit Osioni, CC BY-SA 3.0. The headland and the northern slopes of nearby Mount Eagle are made of cross-bedded sandstones that geologists assign to the Eask Sandstone Formation, part of what is traditionally called the Old Red Sandstone. The rock formed during the Devonian period, roughly four hundred mill...

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Image: Osioni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/dunmore-head-wp/gc28-dunmore-head-old-red-sandstone.mp3 0:06 2 full Dunmore Head: The Westernmost Point https://qualla.com/dunmore-head/ Photo credit Zairon, CC BY 4.0. Mainland Ireland tapers to its absolute western limit here. There is no further to go without putting a boat in the water. The Blasket Islands lie offshore, with Great Blasket and Inishtooskert and Inishvickillane spread across the horizon like vertebrae. Beyond them: nothing, fo...

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Image: Zairon | CC BY 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/dunmore-head-wp/gc28-dunmore-head-the-westernmost-point.mp3 0:06 3 full Dunmore Head: The Wreck of the Ranga https://qualla.com/dunmore-head/ Photo credit Gerald England, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 11 March 1982, a Spanish container ship called MV Ranga lost power in a storm off Slea Head. The wind drove her onto the rocks at Dunmore Head, and she broke up in the surf. There was no loss of life — the crew were taken off by helicopter and the local lifeboat — but the ship...

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Image: Gerald England | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/dunmore-head-wp/gc28-dunmore-head-the-wreck-of-the-ranga.mp3 0:06 4 full Dunmore Head: Ahch-To https://qualla.com/dunmore-head/ Photo credit M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0. For the Star Wars production, what made Dunmore Head right was less the geology than the atmosphere. The headland feels remote in a way few accessible places do. Even on a clear summer day, with cars parked in the lay-by below and walkers strung out along the trail, the wind and ...

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Image: M J Richardson | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/dunmore-head-wp/gc28-dunmore-head-ahch-to.mp3 0:06 5 full