Qualla: Achill Island

Achill Island: Introduction

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Western Kerr, CC BY-SA 4.0. A 17th-century Mayo prophet named Brian Rua U'Cearbhain foretold that 'carriages on wheels with smoke and fire will come to Achill and the first and last carriages will carry dead bodies.' When the railway finally reached Achill Sound in 1894, its first journey brought home 32 victims of the Clew Bay drowning disaster - young men whose overcrowded boat capsized as they transferred to a steamer bound for Scotland and seasonal potato-picking work. The line closed in 1937, and one of its final runs carried ten Achill men who had died in a fire at their Scottish bothy. The prophecy had been fulfilled, though no supernatural power was needed to predict tragedy for a community so poor that its young people had to cross the sea to survive.

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Image: Western Kerr | CC BY-SA 4.0

Achill Island: The Deserted Village

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jamip29, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the slopes of Slievemore mountain stand 80 roofless stone cottages, their walls still defining the rooms where families once lived, their vegetable plots still visible as rectangular depressions in the ground. This is the Deserted Village, abandoned when the Great Famine struc...

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Image: Jamip29 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Achill Island: Cliffs and Currachs

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Störfix, CC BY-SA 3.0. At Keem Bay, where the R319 road ends in a sweeping arc of sand, the mountain of Croaghaun rises behind and plunges on its far side in sea cliffs that rank as the third-highest in Europe. Here in the 1950s and 60s, local fishermen launched currachs - the traditional skin boats th...

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Image: Störfix | CC BY-SA 3.0

Achill Island: The Banshees Return

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MRW, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2023, the film The Banshees of Inisherin brought Achill international attention, though the fictional island of Inisherin doesn't exist. Director Martin McDonagh filmed across Achill's landscapes: the pub at Doogort, the beaches at Keem, the stone-walled fields that give the i...

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Image: MRW | CC BY-SA 3.0

Achill Island: Bridge to Another World

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Michael Davitt Bridge connects Achill to the mainland, named for the founder of the National Land League who fought for tenants' rights in an era when landlords could evict families at will. The bridge has been replaced twice since 1887 - modern traffic and salt corrosion wea...

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Image: Joseph Mischyshyn | CC BY-SA 2.0