Ireland's Eye

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sailboats seen from Ireland's Eye, with Howth Head in the background

Ireland's Eye is a small island off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland, situated directly north of Howth Harbour. The island is easily reached by regular tourist boats. The island is currently part of the county of Fingal, for administrative purposes, but was at one time part of the city of Dublin.

The ruins of a Martello Tower and an 8th-century church are the only signs of previous habitation. In Celtic times the island was called Eria's Island. Eria was a woman's name and this became confused with Erin, the Irish name for Ireland. The Vikings substituted the word Island with Ey, their Norse equivalent, and so it became known as Erin's Ey and ultimately Ireland's Eye.

Its most spectacular feature is the huge freestanding rock called the Stack, which plays host to a large variety of seabirds, including thousands of guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, and gulls. Ireland's fifth gannet colony became established on the Stack in the 1980s, and there are now a few hundred pairs breeding there each year. There is a large cormorant colony on the main island, and a few breeding pairs of puffins. Grey seals are abundant in the sea around the island.