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You are > Home > Life on the Saltee Islands
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
Life on the Saltee Islands
I HAVE never set foot on the Saltee Islands.
An ambition unfulfilled, but one of these days I may take advantage of a trip aboard one of the local boats that carries visitors the three miles or so short voyage from Kilmore Quay.
I am like so many who have never been to the Saltees and, perhaps, we should never go there; long gone are the exciting days of smuggling, pirates and residential isolation, replaced by an uninhabited island and one of Ireland’s leading bird sanctuaries.
This is a place more excitable by the ghosts of the past than by the mediocrity of the present.
When I don my voyager’s hat and meander upon the soil of the Saltees there is no doubt about my first port of call. I want to visit the Giant’s Grave.
Apparently some Kilmore Quay fishermen once came upon a number of human bones, like "fingers and foot bones". They were reinterred all in a convenient rabbit burrow and legend names the place the Giant’s Grave.
There are stories that in the days when horses were used to plough the Saltees soil, they very often became frightened and would refuse to go anywhere near it!
On a clear day it is possible to get a good view of the islands from the mainland: the Little Saltee (92 acres approx.) is closest, being about 2.5 miles from Kilmore Quay, while the Great Saltee (219 acres) is to its western side, and 3.25 miles from the Quay.
The highest point on the islands is on the Great Island and it rises to 198 feet.
The waters around these islands can be treacherous, the seabed is littered by many shipwrecks, and, consequently, this part of the south Wexford coast is commonly known as the "graveyard of a thousand ships."
The modern-day attraction to the Saltees is governed by its bird colonies and the cliffs on the northeast are a Gannet headland. Guillemots, Razorbills, Fulmars and Puffins are also a major part of life on the islands.
The Saltee Islands is a magic place, but the historians are still arguing about the origin of the name – there are two possible theories!
The Norse derivation is Salt-ey; "salt island", derived from the phenomenon of the salty spray that sweeps the islands at times of high winds and waves, especially during winter.
Since December 1943, the Saltees are privately owned by the Neale family. Prince Michael the First died in January 1998 and is buried in the family vault at Bannow Bay.
He has been succeeded by his eldest son, Michael the Second.
Visits to the Great Saltee are permitted and can be arranged by contacting local boat owners at Kilmore Quay; however, permission is refused for landing at the Little Saltee, due to hazardous landing conditions.
The following sentiments are expressed and carved in stone welcoming all visitors to the Great Saltee, erected above the landing steps: "All people, young and old, are welcome to come, see and enjoy the islands, and leave them as they found them for the unborn generations to come, see and enjoy" – Michael the First.
In the 1976-’77 edition of the long-running Kilmore Parish Journal, the editor, Hilary Murphy writes about "Tragedy on the Saltees."
It is recorded that the death occurred of Claude Francis, who was the last person to have lived on the Great Saltee Island, which he farmed very successfully in the first three years of World War II.
A young Wexford town girl, Dorothy Wallace, (16), one of a small party of ornithologists spending a June weekend on the big island, was killed when she fell down a cliff in the same year.
The most famous person to lose his life on the Saltees was Martin Pierce, the founder of the renowned Pierce’s Foundry at Wexford, whose family came from Kilmore, but he lived at Park House, Wexford, at the time.
Martin Pierce used to make regular visits to the Saltees and on Wednesday, June 5th 1907, he and some of his employees set out on a rabbit hunting expedition on the big island, everything was uneventful until evening when delays due to tidal problems and a change in weather conditions set in.
When the boat was about to leave the island, a wave hit the boat and drove it on to the rocks, it was badly holed and the occupants were in grave danger of being drowned as the boat rapidly filled with water.
Exhausted by the experience, Martin Pierce, aged 48 years, deteriorated and he died a few days later.
During the 18th century, the smugglers were at the peak of their illegal trade.
The Saltee Islands was ideally situated for landing the cargo where it could be safely stored until the contraband cargoes could be taken by smaller boats to the Lough of Lingstown and other small inlets on the south Wexford coast.
Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey and John Henry Colclough, two of the best known Protestant leaders in the 1798 Rebellion, hid in a cave on the Saltees, but they were captured, taken to Wexford, tried and executed on Wexford Bridge.
In the 19th century the islands were farmed by various families, including the Furlongs and the Parles.
Samuel Lewis, whose work was published in 1837, stated that the Great Saltee was owned at that time by Hamilton Knox Grogan Morgan, the landlord of Johnstown Castle.
There are many stories and legends associated with the Saltee Islands and the curiosity factor will never wane.
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