
Ireland Island is the north-westernmost island in the chain which comprises
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest.
Bermuda is an ...
. It forms a long finger of land pointing northeastwards from the main island, the last link in a chain which also includes
Boaz Island and
Somerset Island. It lies within
Sandys Parish, and forms the northwestern coast of the
Great Sound. It is regarded as one of the six principal islands of Bermuda, and part of the ''West End'' of the archipelago.
In 1618, a
privateering vessel under the command of a notorious
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
by the name of Powell ran aground on the main island, and Powell was banished to the island (which at that time was uninhabited) by the colonial governor. Following the
American War of Independence, which left Bermuda the only British territory between Nova Scotia and the West Indies, the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
bought the island to use for a lighthouse and dockyard.
A dozen years were spent surveying Bermuda's encompassing reef for a channel sufficient to enable ''ships of burthen'' to reach Ireland Island and the Great Sound. Although the Admiralty had already begun acquiring Ireland Island and other properties around the Great Sound, in 1795 it first established a base at the East End, where
Admiralty House was first located at Rose Hill, beside
St. George's town with the fleet anchoring at ''Murray's Anchorage'', off the northern shore off
St. George's Island while construction began at Ireland Island. The lighthouse was never built, but the
dockyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involve ...
became a strategically important one for the navy during the wars of 1812–15. It first served as the winter headquarters and base for what was to become the
North America and West Indies Station
The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956, with main bases at the Imperial fortresses of Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ...
(with
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...
, filling these roles during the summers), but became the year-round headquarters, main-base and dockyard by the 1820s. The dockyard was expanded at the turn of the century by construction of a new South Yard. From this point, the original fortified yard has been known as the North Yard. Each of the yards has a long breakwater, or ''arm'' enclosing a camber. Although the main anchorage for the fleet was ''Grassy Bay'' (with Murray's Anchorage remaining a secondary anchorage), the area of water inside the mouth of the Great Sound between Ireland Island and Spanish Point, there was considerable space within the cambers for vessels as large as cruisers to berth on wharfs or the inner sides of the breakwaters. As Bermuda's porous limestone did not allow for a conventional drydock, a series of floating dry docks were also moored to the wharf inside the cambers from the 1860s.
With control of the western North Atlantic ceded to the allied
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(when a
United States Naval Operating Base, serving ships and flyingboats, was built on the Great sound, and
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
airbase
Kindley Field at the East End) and subsequently under the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Royal Naval Dockyard was reduced to a base in 1951 (with the ships based there required to return to Portsmouth for repairs). Most of Ireland Island, and the other Admiralty and War Office landholdings in Bermuda, were transferred to the colonial government in 1957, but the South Yard and adjacent areas continued to operate as a naval base titled ''HMS Malabar'' until the 1980s, when the last vessels based there were withdrawn and HMS Malabar became a supply station. The frigate designated as
West Indies Guardship would visit on its way to the West Indies, and again on returning to Britain. Otherwise, HMS Malabar served as a supply station and berthing area for Royal Navy and NATO vessels transiting or exercising in the area until closing in 1995.
The Commissioner's House at the highest point atop The Keep (a fortress within the fortified North Yard) on the northern point of the island was home to a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
Wireless Station from 1939 to 1949 (another had been located since the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
at Daniel's Head on Somerset Island, and was taken over by the
Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; , ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The navy is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of February 2024, the RCN operates 12 s, 12 s, 4 s, 4 s, 8 s, and several auxiliary ...
from the 1960s 'til 1995 as
CFS Bermuda, a transmitter location). Since the 1970s, the
Bermuda Maritime Museum has occupied the Keep, including the Commissioner's House (and, following the end of the Millennium, also took possession of the Casemates Naval Barracks to expand into the ''national'' museum of the
British Overseas Territory
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...
). Other than HMS Malabar and the maritime museum, Ireland Island was largely deserted after the 1950s, and many of the former naval buildings were becoming derelict by the 1980s when the colonial government formed a
quango named the ''West End Development Company'' to attempt to draw businesses and visitors to the area.
The steady increase in size of the cruise liners visiting Bermuda during the summer months has meant that, since the start of the Millennium, few can fit through the narrow channels to
St. George's Harbour and
Hamilton Harbour
Hamilton Harbour (formerly known as Burlington Bay) lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach (south of the Burlington ...
and have instead berthed at the Royal Naval Dockyard. These liners are too large to enter either of the dockyard's cambers (previously, large liners such as the
Queen Elizabeth 2 and
SS Canberra, like naval battleships and aircraft carriers, had anchored at Grassy Bay), and the
Government of Bermuda has consequently built a wharf on the outer, Grassy Bay, side of the northern breakwater. This wharf, which has proved vulnerable to storms, has been titled ''King's Wharf''. The presence of most of Bermuda's tourism visitors there has turned the Royal Naval Dockyard into a busy pleasure town, albeit few people actually reside on Ireland Island. A number of buildings around the dockyard have been taken down since the 1990s, and a new prison was constructed on the western side of Ireland Island North (west of the South Yard north of the Moresby Plain athletic field, and below and south of the Casemates Naval Barracks (which had previously been pressed into use as a prison after being taken over from the Admiralty by the colonial government).
WEDCO has allowed many the naval residences there to fall into dereliction, with Victoria Row (terraced married quarters) demolished in 2016, and the protected status of Albert Row in the process of being removed in 2020 to enable the same fate. The naval chaplain's residence, restored in the 1980s by
Edward C. Harris of the Bermuda Maritime Museum, was taken over by WEDCO in the 1990s. The ruin of the single Mechanics' Quarters on Maria Hill have been swallowed by a forest of invasive species. Other buildings on Ireland Island South had been destroyed before WEDCO's creation, including the Royal Naval Hospital (although the adjacent isolation hospital for infectious diseases survives).
''Bermuda''. Naval Dockyards Society website
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References
{{Reflist
Islands of Bermuda
Sandys Parish