Carbery's Hundred Isles are the islands along the coast of the Baronies of

Carbery West Carbery West ( ga, Cairbrigh Thiar) is a barony in County Cork in Ireland. It has been split since the nineteenth century into East and West Divisions (''an Roinn Thoir/Thiar''). Legal context Baronies were created after the Norman invasion of I ...

and

Carbery East Carbery East ( ga, Cairbrigh Thoir) is a barony in County Cork in Ireland. It has been split since the nineteenth century into East and West Divisions (''an Roinn Thoir/Thiar''). Legal context Baronies were created after the Norman invasion of I ...

, successors to the medieval

Barony of Carbery Carbery, or the Barony of Carbery, was once the largest barony in Ireland, and essentially a small, semi-independent kingdom on the southwestern coast of Munster, in what is now County Cork, from its founding in the 1230s by Donal Gott MacCarthy ...

, on the

Celtic Sea The Celtic Sea ; cy, Y Môr Celtaidd ; kw, An Mor Keltek ; br, Ar Mor Keltiek ; french: La mer Celtique is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits includ ...

, in the far south-west of Ireland. It is a term which includes those islands in and around Long Island Bay and Roaringwater Bay,

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. Because of the Gulf Stream influence, the islands have a mild climate. However, most of them are exposed to the elements, so patches of lush vegetation contrast with treeless expanses of hill and bog, fringed with rocky cliffs and mixed shingle and sand beaches. The eastern islands within the estuary of the Ilen River are more sheltered and fertile. The phrase "Carbery's Hundred Isles" is taken from the narrative poem ''The Sack of Baltimore'' by Thomas Davis, published in 1844, which tells of the raid on the village of Baltimore by Algerian pirates in 1631, in which most of the inhabitants were kidnapped and brought to the slave markets of Algiers. Setting the scene, the first line reads "The summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred isles". This is an instance of poetic license, since there are no more than 50 islands in the archipelago. The popularity of the poem in the 19th century meant that the phrase passed into popular parlance, and subsequently into tourist-industry literature. The area was visited by writer

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

in the 1720s, who described the islands and area in a poem.

Islands

The largest islands in the area include Cléire and

Sherkin Island Sherkin Island, historically called Inisherkin (), lies southwest of County Cork in Ireland alongside other islands of Roaringwater Bay. It had a population of 111 people at the time of the 2016 Census, and measures long by wide. The isl ...

. Others include: *

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

* Castle Island * Carthy's Islands *

Horse Island, County Cork Horse Island (Gaeilge: ''Oileán na gCapall'') is a small inhabited island in Roaringwater Bay, County Cork, Ireland, off the coast of Schull, that forms part of Carbery's Hundred Isles. No ferry service operates to and from the island; however ...

West Skeam Island West Skeam Island is a 33-acre island in Roaringwater Bay, County Cork, Ireland that forms part of Carbery's Hundred Isles. The island is privately owned and was for sale in 2013. There are three cottages on the island, as well as some farmland. ...

East Skeam Island East Skeam Island (Irish: ) is an island in Roaringwater Bay, County Cork, Munster, Ireland, that forms part of Carbery's Hundred Isles. It is situated at , North from Heir Island, East from West Skeam Island West Skeam Island is a 33-acre isl ...

Heir Island Heir Island, also known as Hare Island or Inishodriscol (), is an island in southwest County Cork, Ireland. It has a year-round population of around 25–30. The island is 2.5 km long and 1.5 km wide. It is the fourth-largest of Carber ...

* Calves Island (Calf Island West, Calf Island Middle, Calf Island East) *

Spanish Island Spanish Island () is an island of Ireland in the Roaring Water Bay, north of Baltimore, County Cork. References See also * List of islands of Ireland A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * ...

Ringarogy Island Ringarogy Island (''Gaeilge: Rinn Ghearróige'') is a former island in Roaringwater Bay, County Cork, Ireland that forms part of Carbery's Hundred Isles. Ringarogy is joined to the mainland with a bridge A bridge is a structure built t ...

* Goat Island (Beg/Mór) * Rabbit island

References

External links

Sherkin Island

West Cork Islands
{{coord missing, County Cork Islands of County Cork