Cape Clear Island
{{Short description|Island off the southwest coast of Ireland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox islands
| name = Cape Clear Island
| image_name = Clear Island.jpg
| image_caption = View from the island's South Harbour
| image_size = 240px
| pushpin_map = island of Ireland
| pushpin_label_position = top
| pushpin_map_caption = Cape Clear Island (Ireland)
| native_name = Cléire
| native_name_link =
| nickname =
| location = Carbery's Hundred Isles
| coordinates = {{Coord|51|26|N|9|30|W|region:IE_type:isle|display=title,inline}}
| archipelago =
| total_islands =
| major_islands =
| area_km2 = 6.7
| length_km = 5.2
| width_km = 2.4
| highest_mount = Cnoicín an tSeabhaic
| elevation_m = 160
| country = Ireland
| country_admin_divisions_title = Province
| country_admin_divisions = Munster
| country_admin_divisions_title_1 = County
| country_admin_divisions_1 = Cork
| country_admin_divisions_title_2 = Barony
| country_admin_divisions_2 = Carbery West
| population = 110
| population_as_of = 2022
| population_footnotes = {{cite report |title=Population of Inhabited Islands Off the Coast|publisher=Central Statistics Office|date=2023 |access-date=29 June 2023|url=https://data.cso.ie/table/F1019}}
| density_km2 = 18.6
| website = {{URL|capeclearisland.ie}}
| additional_info = The island is a Gaeltacht
}}
Clear Island or Cape Clear Island (officially known by its Irish name: Cléire, and sometimes also called Oileán Chléire){{cite web|url = https://www.logainm.ie/543.aspx| publisher = Irish Placenames Commission | website = logainm.ie | title = Cléire / Clear Island (island or archipelago, civil parish) | access-date = 16 October 2019 }}{{cite web|url = https://www.logainm.ie/1372086.aspx | publisher = Irish Placenames Commission | website = logainm.ie | title = Cléire / Cape Clear (electoral district) | access-date = 16 October 2019 }} is an island off the south-west coast of County Cork in Ireland. It is the southernmost inhabited part of Ireland and had a population of 110 people as of the 2022 census.{{Cite web |title=Interactive Data Visualisations {{!}} CSO Ireland |url=https://visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/ima/cop/2022&boundary=C04172V04943&guid=4c07d11d-fb6f-851d-e053-ca3ca8c0ca7f |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=visual.cso.ie}}
The island is a Gaeltacht area (Irish-speaking area),{{Cite web |title=Irish Language and the Gaeltacht - CSO - Central Statistics Office |url=https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp10esil/p10esil/ilg/ |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.cso.ie |language=en}} in which Irish is spoken on a daily basis. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, which is {{convert|2|km|nmi|frac=2|abbr=off}} east of Cape Clear Island.
The island is divided into east and west halves by an isthmus called the Waist, with the North Harbour to the landward side and the South Harbour on the seaward side.David Walsh, Oileáin: A Guide to the Irish Islands (Pesda Press, 2004; {{ISBN|0953195694}}), p. 64. Ferries sail regularly from the North Harbour to Schull and Baltimore on the mainland. The South Harbour is a popular berth for yachts and pleasure boats during the summer months.
History
Archaeological sites on the island include a prehistoric cup-marked stone (currently in the island's museum), a fulacht fiadh at Gort na Lobhar, a Neolithic passage tomb at Cill Leire Forabhain, several standing stones around the island, a promontory fort at Dún an Óir, and a signal tower dating from the Napoleonic Wars.{{cite web|url= http://www.capeclearmuseum.ie/gallery.php |publisher=Cape Clear Museum |title=Archaeological & Historical Sites on Cape Clear Island |archive-date=4 November 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171104003029/http://www.capeclearmuseum.ie/gallery.php }}{{cite web|url= http://www.capeclearisland.ie/heritageCentre |publisher=Cape Clear Cooperative |title=Cape Clear Heritage Centre |access-date=6 April 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/cape-clear-island-oilean-chleire/62096 |publisher=Fáilte Ireland |title=Cape Clear Island - Oileán Chléire |access-date= 6 April 2015}} The island also has a number of early Christian sites, and is reputed to be the birthplace of Saint Ciarán of Saigir. The ruin of a 12th-century church, which has protected national monument status, is close to the main pier in the North Harbour.{{cite book|title=Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Vol 1 (West Cork)|publisher= Office of Public Works|date= 1992 |isbn=9780707601755}}
The island had a population of over 1,052 before the 19th century famine, but the current population of Cape Clear is less than one-eighth of that figure. The island's primary school was built in 1897, and was visited by President of Ireland Mary McAleese in 1998.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}
Cape Clear was originally supplied with electricity produced by diesel generators on the island, but around 1995 these were replaced with a submarine power cable from the mainland.{{cite web|url= http://www.capeclearmuseum.ie/gallery.php |publisher= Capeclearmuseum.ie | quote= Electricity and house water was a 'luxury' that only arrived on the island in the 1970s and a submarine cable bringing electricity from the mainland 8 miles away arrived only about 1995. | title= Cape Clear Museum and Archive |archive-date=4 November 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171104003029/http://www.capeclearmuseum.ie/gallery.php }}
{{Historical populations
| align = none
| cols = 3
|footnote= Sources: {{cite web |url= http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?Maintable=CNA17&Planguage=0 |title= CNA17: Population by Off Shore Island, Sex and Year |author = Central Statistics Office |access-date=12 October 2016}} and {{cite web | url = https://data.gov.ie/dataset/population-of-inhabited-islands-off-the-coast-2011-to-2016-number-by-islands-censusyear-and-sex | title = E2021 - Population of Inhabited Islands Off the Coast 2011 to 2016 (Number) by Islands, CensusYear and Sex | access-date = 27 November 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.
|1841|1052
|1851|819
|1861|756
|1871|572
|1881|594
|1891|584
|1901|601
|1911|565
|1926|453
|1936|354
|1946|281
|1951|257
|1956|245
|1961|235
|1966|217
|1971|192
|1979|155
|1981|164
|1986|145
|1991|132
|1996|145
|2002|129
|2006|125
|2011|124
|2016|147
|2022|110
}}
Culture and language
The island is officially identified as a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area. According to the 2016 census there were 145 people over the age of 3 living on the island, with 62% claiming to be able to speak Irish and 27% saying they spoke Irish daily outside the education system.{{Cite web|title=ArcGIS Web Application|url=http://airomaps.nuim.ie/id/Census2016/|access-date=2020-12-31|website=airomaps.nuim.ie}}{{Cite web|title=ArcGIS Web Application|url=http://census.cso.ie/p10map51/|access-date=2020-12-31|website=census.cso.ie|archive-date=28 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128021020/http://census.cso.ie/p10map51/|url-status=dead}}
The population of the island increases in the summer months as students visit the local Irish Colleges, Coláiste Phobal Chléire and Coláiste Chiaráin.{{Cite web|title=Irish Colleges|url=http://capeclearisland.ie/IrishColleges|access-date=2020-08-25|website=capeclearisland.ie}} Students stay in local houses or dorms and improve their spoken Irish as part of the immersion courses within the Gaeltacht.
Every first weekend of September, the island hosts the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival. The festival has been running annually since 1994.{{cite web|url = http://capeclearstorytelling.com/ | website = capeclearstorytelling.com | title = Cape Clear Storytelling | access-date = 16 October 2019 }}
Wildlife
Seals, basking sharks and dolphins are often found in the surrounding waters, while sea pinks and honeysuckle are common plants on the land.{{cite book|title=The Wild Plants of Sherkin, Cape Clear and adjacent Islands of West Cork|editor=John Akeroyd|publisher=Sherkin Island Marine Station |date=1996 |isbn=9781870492584}} Cape Clear is home to a lighthouse and a bird observatory. Cape Clear is popular with bird watchers and at certain times of the year is home to many species of migratory birds as its climate is milder than the mainland and thus more attractive.{{cite web|url= http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Birdwatching/CapeClearBirdObservatory/LocationandDirections/tabid/573/Default.aspx|title= Birdwatching Cape Clear|publisher= BirdWatch Ireland|access-date= 5 April 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150315121943/http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Birdwatching/CapeClearBirdObservatory/LocationandDirections/tabid/573/Default.aspx|archive-date= 15 March 2015|url-status= dead}} Bird life includes black and common guillemots, cormorants and storm petrels.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Cape Clear Island, Éamon Lankford, 1999
- Ghostwritten, David Mitchell, 1999
- Staideár Cuimsitheach Teangeolaíoch ar Úsáid na Gaeilge sa Ghaeltacht, Committee of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, 2007
- The Night Swimmer, Matt Bondurant, 2012
External links
{{Commons category|Cape Clear}}
- {{Official website|http://www.capeclearisland.ie}}
- [https://www.capeclearferries.com/ Cape Clear Ferries website]
{{Gaeltacht}}
{{Authority control}}
{{County Cork}}
Category:Islands of County Cork
Category:Gaeltacht places in County Cork
Category:Tourist attractions in County Cork