Qualla: Puffin Island (County Kerry)

Puffin Island (County Kerry): Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Snalwibma at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Inishfearglin is the old name - the island has worn it since long before tourists learned to call it Puffin Island. The newer name is honest about what you find there: in summer, the cliff faces and burrow-pocked slopes belong almost entirely to seabirds, and the namesake puffins are only the easiest of them to identify. A quarter-kilometer of cold Atlantic water separates the rock from the mainland of the Iveragh Peninsula. The island rises 213 meters out of the sea on the other side. It is a piece of County Kerry that, in any practical sense, the human population has handed back.

Image: Snalwibma at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Puffin Island (County Kerry): A Sound Worth Crossing

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren.buckley at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. Puffin Sound is only about 250 meters across, which sounds modest until you stand on its shore and watch the tide rip through. The currents in the gap between the island and the mainland are fast and seriously disrespectful of small boats. Day trips run in calm weather from Valen...

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

Puffin Island (County Kerry): The Colony in Summer

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aidannnuigalway, CC BY-SA 4.0. Puffin Island is a designated nature reserve and an Important Bird Area, and the summer breeding season is what those designations are protecting. Atlantic puffins burrow into the soft turf at the top of the slopes, laying single eggs underground and ferrying sand eels back to th...

Image: Aidannnuigalway | CC BY-SA 4.0

Puffin Island (County Kerry): Older Inhabitants

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Karie Kuiper, CC BY-SA 4.0. The island has signs of ancient human habitation - not extensive, but enough to interest archaeologists. The sites are small and scattered, mostly traces of structures rather than complete buildings, suggesting use rather than continuous settlement. The pattern echoes other small...

Image: Karie Kuiper | CC BY-SA 4.0

Puffin Island (County Kerry): The View From the Mainland

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nathan Lynch02, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the headlands of St. Finian's Bay and Valentia, Puffin Island looks like a single solid pyramid of rock, with cliffs falling sheer into the water on its seaward side. The summit, at 213 meters, qualifies it as a Marilyn - a hill with at least 150 meters of prominence on all ...

Image: Nathan Lynch02 | CC BY-SA 4.0