Inishvickillane

Inishvickillane

Native name: <span class="nickname" ">Inis Mhic Aoibhleáin
Inishvickillane
Geography
Location	Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates	52°02′37″N 10°36′30″W / 52.04350°N 10.60829°WCoordinates: 52°02′37″N 10°36′30″W / 52.04350°N 10.60829°W
Archipelago	Blasket Islands
Highest elevation	200 m (700 ft)
Administration
Ireland
Province	Munster
County	County Kerry
Demographics
Population	0 (0)
Pop. density	0 /km^2 (0 /sq mi)

Inishvickillane
Highest point
Elevation	135 m (443 ft)
Prominence	135 m (443 ft)
Dimensions
Area	0.692
Geography
OSI/OSNI grid	V211911

Inishvickillane or Inishvickillaun (from Irish: Inis Mhic Aoibhleáin meaning 'Mac Killane's island')^[1] is one of the Blasket Islands of County Kerry, Ireland.

History

Referred to by Blasket islanders as "The Inis",^[2] Inishvickillane was intermittently inhabited during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by one or more families. There are extensive ruins of ancient stone buildings and a house was built in the 1970s by Taoiseach Charles Haughey, who owned the island and used it as a holiday home.

Inishvickillane will be the first land in Europe to experience the Solar eclipse of September 23, 2090.^[3]

Geography

Apart from Tearaght and some rocks, this island is the most western land of Ireland; it is possibly the most western part of the country that had anything like normal habitation, since Tearaght's sole inhabitants seem to have been the keepers of the lighthouse there before that was automated in 1988.

Nature

Inishvickillane holds important seabird colonies, being especially notable for northern fulmar, European storm-petrel and Atlantic puffin. A herd of red deer was introduced to the island by Haughey.

References

1. Placenames Database of Ireland
2. J. & R. Stagles, The Blasket Islands: Next Parish America. O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1980
3. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=20900923