Sherkin Island
Sherkin Island is a small inhabited island located off the southwest coast of County Cork, Ireland, sitting in the sheltered waters of Baltimore Harbour and Roaringwater Bay. It covers roughly five square kilometres and is home to a permanent population of fewer than a hundred people, yet it draws a steady stream of visitors drawn by its unspoiled beaches, ruined abbey, and the kind of unhurried, slightly otherworldly atmosphere that only islands with no cars worth mentioning and a single pub can produce. It is one of the most accessible of the many islands scattered across Roaringwater Bay, being only about fifteen minutes by ferry from the mainland village of Baltimore, and this proximity makes it a popular day trip while still allowing it to retain the character of a genuinely lived-in island community.
The island's history reaches back well before the Norman period, but the most dramatic chapter belongs to the O'Driscoll clan, the dominant Gaelic maritime family of southwest Cork who styled themselves Lords of the Seas. They built Dún na Long castle on the western shore of the island, and it was their seat of power in this part of Roaringwater Bay. In 1537, however, Sherkin became the scene of a notable and destructive event when a fleet from Waterford, angered by O'Driscoll pirates seizing their trading vessels, sailed around the coast and sacked the island. The raid destroyed a significant portion of what had been built there, including structures associated with the Franciscan friary that had been founded only decades earlier, around 1460, under the patronage of the O'Driscolls themselves. The ruins of this Franciscan friary, formally known as Sherkin Abbey or the Franciscan Friary of Sherkin, still stand today and are one of the island's most evocative landmarks, their walls rising from a gentle slope overlooking the harbour in a state of picturesque but substantial preservation.
The physical character of Sherkin is one of contrasts between shelter and exposure. The eastern side of the island, facing Baltimore, is relatively calm and domesticated in feel, with the small pier, the pub, a scattering of houses, and the ruins of the friary visible as you approach by ferry. Move westward across the island and the landscape opens up dramatically. Silver Strand, one of several fine beaches, offers Atlantic-facing views and on a clear day the horizon seems impossibly wide. The interior is a patchwork of rough pasture, low stone walls, and wildflower meadows that in summer are thick with colour. The island supports a notable population of butterflies and rare plants, and it has been the subject of ecological and marine research for decades, partly due to the Sherkin Island Marine Station, which was founded in 1975 and has produced extensive scientific surveys of the bay's ecology.
The surrounding waters of Roaringwater Bay are themselves extraordinary, scattered with approximately one hundred islands and islets, many of them uninhabited. On a clear day from the higher ground of Sherkin you can see Cape Clear Island to the southwest, the Mizen Peninsula stretching out to the west, and on exceptional days the distant profile of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse. The mainland village of Baltimore, from which the ferry departs, is a charming working fishing port and yachting harbour with several pubs and restaurants, and together with Sherkin it forms part of a southwest Cork coastal experience that is increasingly recognised as one of the more beautiful coastal zones in Ireland.
Visiting Sherkin is straightforward. The ferry from Baltimore runs regularly throughout the day during the warmer months, with a crossing time of roughly fifteen minutes. The island has a small but welcoming pub, the Jolly Roger, which serves food and is something of a social centre for visitors and locals alike. There are a handful of self-catering cottages and a small hostel for those wishing to stay overnight, and spending a night on the island gives a completely different experience from a day trip: the quiet after the last ferry leaves is profound, and the night skies, free from significant light pollution, are remarkable. The best time to visit is between May and September, with July and August being busiest but also the most reliably warm. Spring and early autumn visits offer the charm of quieter conditions and often excellent wildlife viewing.
A few details about Sherkin set it apart from other accessible Irish islands. The Marine Station on the island has published more scientific papers per square kilometre than almost any comparable site in Ireland, and its work has included monitoring the extraordinary diversity of algae and invertebrates in the bay. The island also has a small church still in use, a community hall, a primary school that has operated for generations with only a handful of pupils at any given time, and road infrastructure just extensive enough to allow the local tractors and a few vehicles to move around. The lighthouse on the western tip of the island was established in the nineteenth century. There is something about the layering of time on Sherkin — a medieval ruin, a working scientific research station, a community pub, children cycling to school — that makes it feel like an unusually complete and coherent small world, compact enough to walk across in an afternoon but rich enough to reward much longer attention.