West Skeam Island is a 33-acre island in 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 a ...

, Ireland that forms part of

Carbery's Hundred Isles Carbery's Hundred Isles are the islands along the coast of the Baronies of Carbery West and Carbery East, successors to the medieval Barony of Carbery, on the Celtic Sea, in the far south-west of Ireland. It is a term which includes those island ...

. The island is privately owned and was for sale in 2013. There are three cottages on the island, as well as some farmland. The ruins of a fifth century church stand above a beach at the east end of the island. The eastern end of this building has been washed into the sea, but the western end still remains. The

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of o ...

conducted an excavation of the area in 1990, which revealed several graves. Work was subsequently carried out to prevent further loss of the structure by building a protective wall on the beach beneath the remains of the church. In modern times, the island was inhabited from the mid nineteenth century, until the 1930s, when the last inhabitants left.

References

Islands of County Cork Private islands of Ireland {{cork-geo-stub