Qualla: Dunquin

Dunquin: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Shires, CC BY-SA 2.0. At ten degrees and twenty-seven minutes west, Dunquin is the westernmost settlement of Ireland and, excluding Iceland, of all Eurasia. The village clings to a slope above the Blasket Sound, looking out at islands where, in 1953, the last permanent residents were finally evacuated because the population had fallen too low to sustain life through an Atlantic winter. Below the cliffs, a vertiginous concrete path zigzags down to a pier where, in summer, a small ferry still crosses to the Great Blasket. The village above has been the setting for ethnographic films, Hollywood productions, and the founding of the British Campaign for Real Ale. Everything about this place is unlikely.

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Image: Bob Shires | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dunquin: The Blasket Writers

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0. From a population that never exceeded a couple of hundred, the Blasket Islands produced three of the great Irish-language memoirs of the twentieth century. Peig Sayers, who lived on Great Blasket and was buried in Dunquin in 1958, dictated Peig to her son in 1936 — a book that ge...

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Image: M J Richardson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dunquin: Ryan's Daughter

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren.buckley at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. In 1969 and 1970, David Lean came to Dunquin to film Ryan's Daughter, a Robert Bolt screenplay set during the First World War. A schoolhouse was built specifically for the production at Coumineole Beach, and most of the village population worked as extras, set crew, or in support...

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Image: Warren.buckley at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Dunquin: Kruger's Bar and CAMRA

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JoachimKohler-HB, CC BY-SA 4.0. Kruger's Bar in Dunquin claims to be the westernmost pub in Europe, and in 1971 it earned a slightly unexpected place in British social history. Four young Englishmen on a holiday in Kerry — fed up with what they considered the bland industrial keg beer that was taking over the B...

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Image: JoachimKohler-HB | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dunquin: Star Wars and the Dingle Way

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Morton from Adelaide, CC BY 2.0. Scenes from Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) were filmed on the cliffs at Dunquin, with the landscape standing in for the planet Ahch-To where Luke Skywalker had retreated into exile. The village is also the western pivot of the Dingle Way, a 179-kilometre circular walking trail t...

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Image: John Morton from Adelaide | CC BY 2.0

Dunquin: The School That Refused to Close

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pam Brophy, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the 1970s, the small national school in Dunquin — Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Gobnait, opened in 1914 — became the centre of a national controversy. The government decided to close it as part of a programme to consolidate small rural schools. The community refused. Protest marches, ...

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Image: Pam Brophy | CC BY-SA 2.0