World Famous 365 Islands
Local mythology counts Clew Bay’s Island at 365 one for every day of the year. A beguiling water world unlike anything else in the British Isles.
Nowadays most of the islands are deserted but at one stage they sustained a thriving population. In 1800 there were approximately 2000 people living on these islands. The inhabitants survived on fishing and cultivated the rich soils to grow crops. The fertile soil of the landscape gives a clue as to how the islands formed. Its islands are made from the rich residue left behind from glaciers.
20,000 years ago much of Ireland was covered by a vast ice sheet. As the climate cooled and warmed the ice advanced and retreated moulding the land underneath, creating the distinctive features that became Clew Bay. All of the islands are drumlins, coming from the Gaelic word Droim, meaning hill.
What’s so striking in the repetitive pattern of drumlin islands across the bay.
