Qualla: Magharee Islands

Magharee Islands: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA, CC BY 2.0. Until the early 1980s, the way to bring cattle to summer pasture on these islands was to swim them across. Farmers from Castlegregory would gather their stock at low tide on Scraggane Beach, row out in currachs alongside the swimming animals, and shepherd them across the Magharee Sound to the grass-topped islands offshore. If an animal got into trouble, the farmers tried to lash it to the boat or haul it aboard. If they could not, the animal drowned. It was a working method, not a sentimental one. Today the crossing is done with a modified flotation cage towed behind a boat, and the cattle arrive on the islands less traumatised than their grandmothers did. The cows still come every summer. The islands have been called the Seven Hogs since at least the eighteenth century, and they have always existed in this overlap between worship and grazing, geology and bird life, isolation and use.

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Image: Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA | CC BY 2.0

Magharee Islands: The Seven Hogs

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Podstawko, CC BY 4.0. The Magharee Islands - the name comes from the Irish Na Machairi, meaning the plains - are a cluster of low limestone outcrops off Rough Point at the northern tip of the Maharees peninsula in County Kerry. There are seven principal islands, though the count depends on which low r...

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Image: Podstawko | CC BY 4.0

Magharee Islands: A Bird Sanctuary

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0. BirdLife International has designated the Magharee Islands as an Important Bird Area because they support breeding populations of several seabird species. The cliffs and ledges of the islands host nesting gulls, cormorants, shags, and gannets. Terns nest on the lower beaches. The...

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Image: Superbass | CC BY-SA 4.0

Magharee Islands: Underwater

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA, CC BY 2.0. The waters around the Magharees are among the best diving locations on the west coast of Ireland. Visibility, on the right tide, can reach twenty metres - exceptional for these latitudes. The bottom drops into kelp forests; sea anemones, urchins, and crabs occupy the rock. Atlant...

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Image: Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA | CC BY 2.0

Magharee Islands: Cattle and Currachs

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA, CC BY 2.0. The islands have been used for summer grazing for as long as memory runs. Cattle arrived by swimming, accompanied by men in currachs, until the practice was modernised in the 1980s. The economic logic was simple - the mainland fields could be reserved for hay or root crops while ...

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Image: Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA | CC BY 2.0

Magharee Islands: Getting Out There

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA, CC BY 2.0. Scraggane Pier on the western side of the Maharees peninsula is the nearest mainland landing. Boats run out to the islands in summer for divers, anglers, and visitors to Illauntannig's monastic site. The water is rarely calm. The Magharee Sound is narrow but exposed to Atlantic s...

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Image: Terry Ballard from Merrick, New York, USA | CC BY 2.0