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The complete tourist guide to the Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry, Ireland The best Guide to Bed & Breakfast, Self-catering Accommodation & Activities and more ! .
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| The Great Blasket was once home to 170 people, living in stone houses on a steep slope facing the mainland. Even into the middle of the last century their life could be described as medieval: they had no source of power but the burning of turf from the hill, no source of food but the sea and the animals they kept and the few crops that could be grown on such miserly land. There was fresh water from 20 springs and milk from the cows. The work was communal and money seldom changed hands. | Scholars
came to examine this strange place, where the people spoke a
form of Gaelic not heard elsewhere for centuries and gathered
by firelight to hear stories passed down through millennia.
The Great Blasket became famous in
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The
island was abandoned...The story of
its evacuation in 1953 was full of heroism and tragedy. The
search for survivors took me to
It's difficult to imagine anyone living on these remote rocky island outposts. But Irish historians believe monks inhabited the Blaskets in the fifth and six centuries and that the Vikings used the islands as jumping-off points for raiding the Irish mainland in the ninth and 10th centuries. Later, the islands were home to several notable poets and writers of the Irish language |
Dingle Bay Charters Blasket Island Ferry Take a fast (40 Minute) ferry from Dingle Marina to the Great Blasket Island. Watch out for Fungie the dolphin at the entrance to Dingle Harbour, then sit back and soak in the scenery as you round Slea Head and approach the Blasket Island.www.dinglebaycharters.com |