The Skerries

At the very end of my last day in Ireland, I went to the Skerries. It is a little seaside town on and around Red Island, a tied island sticking out like a thumb into the coast just north of Dublin.

Skerries is the Viking word for rocks. In Finland, any small rocky island is called a skerry. Actually something similar to skerry means sea rock in just about any language related to Old Norse, Russian or any Gaelic.

These photos are taken from Red Island. There are five other islands; Shenick Island, St Patrick’s, Colt and Rockabill.

Skerries Lighthouse on Rockabill island, The Skerries, Fingal, Ireland

Rockabill is the most distant island. The Skerry lighthouse was built there 1855–1860. Rockabill is actually two rock islands, The Rock and The Bill or The Cow and The Calf. It looks like just one island, but they are actually some 65 feet apart, separated by a channel.

Napoleon Tower, Shenick Island, The Skerries, Fingal, Ireland

Shenick Island has a round Martello tower, one of the towers built as lookout and signal towers during the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815. There is another Napoleon tower on the other side of Red Island.

It is very shallow when the tide is out at The Skerries.

See the man walking in the water? It is very shallow when the tide is out at The Skerries.

The water is so shallow, it might be possible to walk to the other islands at low tide, but it’s not a good idea, since the fast returning tide can be very dangerous.