Valentia Island (Co. Kerry)
Valentia Island (Oilean Dairbhre – “Island of the Oaks”) (pop. 700), one of Europe’s westernmost inhabited locations, lies just off the northwestern tip of the Iveragh Peninsula in Co. Kerry. Approximately 11 km long by 3 km wide, it is dominated by Geokaun Mountain (268m / 880ft) to the North and Bray Head (180m / 792ft) to the South. The island has been connected to the mainland by a bridge at Portmagee since 1970, and can also be reached between March and October by car ferry across Valentia Harbour from Reenard Point on the tip of the peninsula.
Knightstown / Knight’s Town (An Chois) (pop. 200), the Island’s port on Valentia Harbour, was designed by the architect Alexander Nimmo in 1840 for Sir Peter George FitzGerald, 19th Knight of Kerry. The village, for some reason known locally as “the Foot’”, has two pubs, two cafés, two restaurants and one shop. Valentia’s tourist office is on the sea front.
The splendid Clock Tower gives the place a slightly Italian feel, apart from the Telegraph Station Houses built in 1868, which are resolutely English.
Chapeltown, in the centre of the island, is the first settlement reached when travelling to Valentia over the bridge from Portmagee. It is a small village that grew up during the C19th around the island’s first Roman Catholic chapel, since replaced by a church. Chapeltown is effectively the social centre for the island, insofar as the GAA grounds (home to Valentia Young Islanders), the National School and the Community Centre serve all the islanders. The village has a pub/hostel.
Dohilla, originally a settlement occupied by slate quarry workers, is now undergoing a new lease of life, with the old cottages renovated as holiday homes.
The Geokaun Slate Quarry has impressive views out over the Atlantic. It was opened by the Knight of Kerry in 1816 and ceased operations in 1878, but it has recently been reopened as the only working slate operation in Ireland. The slates were used to make benches, tables, sundials and various other items, especially snooker tables, and for paving at railway stations in Nottingham, Derby, Rugby, Leicester, and, in 1860, San Salvador de Bahia in Brazil. Prominent buildings where “Valentia Flag” was used include the British House of Commons at Westminster (roof), the British National Gallery and the Public Record Office in London (said to have 25 miles of slate shelves).
The mouth of the quarry is now a Grotto, with a statue of the Madonna of Lourdes dominating the entrance, and water cascading into pools eerily echoing from the back of the huge cavern.
Valentia’s northern Lighthouse was once a Cromwellian fort, guarding the mouth of the Harbour with its colleague on Beginnis island. Nearby the Lighthouse Café is a very pleasant surprise There is a great view of the Atlantic from here
Prehistoric Footprints: About 385 million years ago, a primitive vertebrate passed along a muddy shoreline in the equatorial swampland that is now southeastern Ireland. The tetrapod’s fossilised tracks, discovered by an undergraduate geology student in 1993 near the Lighthouse, are among the oldest signs of vertebrate life on land and have been studied extensively by palaeontologists.
Foilhommerum Cliff was the site of the first permanent communications link between Europe and America, commemorated since 2002 by local sculptor Alan Hall’s striking memorial. The first transatlantic cable connection, brought to Knightstown by HMS Agamemnon on 5th August 1858, and used by Queen Victoria to send a congratulatory message to President Buchanan, only lasted one month; however, the 4260km cable laid in 1865 by the SS Great Eastern from Valentia to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, remained in operation until 1966.
Two Alzamuth Stones, one an original used by a U.S. Coast Survey expedition in 1862, the other a replica incorporated into a striking monument in Knightstown, recall the mid-C19th importance of establishing precise lines of longitude in the Atlantic, finally achieved in 1866, when American scientists built a temporary observatory immediately adjacent to the Foilhommerum Cable Station in order to use new transatlantic telegraph to facilitate synchronized longitude observations between North America, Valentia and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. In fact only two Alzamuth readings were taken, one in Knightstown and the other in the Ural Mountains in Russia.
On May 21st 1927 another event of major historical significance touched Valentia. Charles A. Lindbergh, the great American aviator, reached Ireland on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris. He circled Valentia Island waving his wing numbers (RX21 I) for the Western Union Transatlantic Telegraph Cable Station to report to an anxious world. Aviation now joined cable communication to bring Europe and North America closer together.
Valentia Observatory was established in 1867 to record and pass on vital meteorological and geodetic data. The remains of an anemometer can still be seen on Ballymanagh Hill (ask for ‘Cullum’s Cup’). The observatory was moved to Caherciveen in 1892 but retains the name of Valentia observatory, and likes to claim that it heralds Europe’s weather. It is this observatory that provides vital weather information for Atlantic shipping forecasts, broadcast twice daily on the radio.
Bray Head tower is a ruined former lookout point with wonderful views of the Skelligs.
Exceptional vistas are also available from other points on the Island’s spectacular cliffs, but mist can descend suddenly, making walking very unsafe, especially along the Calloo stretch.
Valentia’s Lifeboat station, made permanent in 1946 after replacing the former Reenard Point station during WWII, has according to RNLI records at the last count been in service 536 times and saved 388 lives.
The famous American rock climber Michael Reardon drowned on July 13th 2007 at the base of the Fogher Sea Cliffs near Dohilla when he was swept out to sea while posing for a photograph after a successful solo climb
Miss Maude Jane Delap, born in 1866, was a daughter of the Church of Ireland minister in Knightstown, who introduced his children to the delights of natural history at an early age. As adults she and her sister ran a small hospital on the island, but found time to continue their collecting and research on marine animals, especially plankton. Maude discovered a number of new and rare species of jellyfish and other minute sea animals, leading to an offer of a career at the famous Marine Biological Station at Plymouth, but she preferred to live and work in Valentia. In 1928 a Sea Anemone was named in her honour; Edwardsia Delapiae.
Valentia and its neighbours are scattered with ancient Cairns, Dolmens, Wedge tombs, Standing Stones, Ogham Stones, remains of churches, beehive huts etc. Valentia is also thought to have been home to Mug Ruith, a powerful blind druid in Irish mythology.
The island has several scuba diving centre with rental equipment. Valentia Harbour is particularly recommended for novices.
Valentia hosts its festive annual regatta each August bank holiday. There are plenty of vantage points on both sides of the water, but to capture the real spirit of the event, watch from the Island shore. Competitors brave the Atlantic swells to row Seine boats along the Island and mainland waters.
