Cape Clear, Ireland

After a couple of nights out in Baltimore, I needed to clear my head, so I figured a couple of days wandering around a sparsely populated island was called for. For some reason I seem to gravitate towards islands - Cape Clear and Inishmore in Ireland and Skye and Lewis & Harris in Scotland, for example.

After a stunning forty minute ferry ride from Baltimore, past Sherkin Island, I was dropped off on Cape Clear - population about 130. According to a scientific survey I conducted at the pub while I was there, I concluded that about half the population on the island are Blow Ins - foreigners who settle in Western Ireland.

I settled into the An Óige hostel, which was a Church of Ireland and then a Coast Guard station before being transformed into a youth hostel. The accommodation was sparse, but sufficient, and I was the only guest. I had a chat with Richard, the owner, and he explained that he and his wife took it over about a year ago and they are in the process of fixing it up, as it has fallen into disrepair over the years. I took a quick look around the area, and found the one place I could get a meal was Ciarán Danny Mike's Bar. When I asked Mary, the owner, about the name, she explained that 'Danny Mike' identifies the branch of the family of O'Driscolls using the father and the grandfather's names. Great way to keep the cousins straight.

There's not a whole lot to do in a place like Cape Clear, which is sort of what I was looking for. I walked around quite a bit, taking in the sites - an old bit of a castle on the northwest corner of the island, and a lighthouse and garrison in the southeast. In the evenings, I went to the bar for dinner and a pint or two. One night, while sitting outside with a pint waiting for dinner, I met a man named Chuck Kruger who lives in a house overlooking the south harbour. He's a blow in, originally from New York's finger lakes, and more recently from Switzerland. After leaving his teaching position at an international school in Switzerland about ten years ago, he and his wife bought a large farm overlooking the south harbour, where they now live and have a cottage which they rent out. He's a writer and has published several books and poems, all relating to Cape Clear. We had a good chat about Switzerland, writing, and life on the island.

The next day, I headed out for a walk along the southeast coast, from south harbour to the lighthouse. As I got near the end of the road, I saw Chuck sitting in a rocking chair on a little hill overlooking the harbour. He invited me in for coffee and showed me around their house and the guesthouse they have. [If you ever want a great place away from everything, that's it.] I brought up the Newfie term Come From Away and how it was similar to a Blow In. He told me that a few years ago, just after they moved there, he and his wife were out walking and they struck up a conversation with an older gentleman, who invited them in for tea. He had on the table a series of maps of Cape Clear. On top was a recent map, below that a map about 100 years old, and on the bottom, a map on parchment from the early eighteenth century. The older gentleman said his family moved to the island in 1710 -- and they're still considered blow ins.